WATER-RAIL. 135 
wet marshes, is “formed on the outside,” says Mr. Yarrell, 
“ with coarse aquatic plants, lined with finer materials within.” 
From seven to ten eggs appears to be the number laid, and they 
vary very much in their grouna-colour, between a pale brownish- 
dun and a slightly yellow-white, the spots or blotches being of a 
reddish brown of some intensity.— Fig. 5, plate IX. 
. 220. LITTLE CRAKE—(Crez pusilia). 
-Olivaceous Gallinule, Little Gallimule.—Strictly speaking, still 
a rare bird in this country. 
221. BAILLON’S CRAKE—(Crer Baillonii). 
More rare than the last, and, perhaps, occasionally confused 
with it. 
222. WATER RAIL—(Rallus aquaticus). 
Bilecock, Skiddycock, Runner, Brook-runner, Velvet-runner. 
—One of the very sluest of our British birds, and thus seeming 
to be much more rare than it really is. J have seen it at al 
seasons of the year, though it is, I am well aware, less tolerant 
of cold than many other of our winter-staying birds. Its motions 
on the bank of a stream, when suddenly disturbed, are much 
more like those ofa Water Rat than a bird. It breeds with some 
degree of commonness in several of the Southern counties. I 
obtained two nests from the estate in Norfolk, already mentioned 
in these pages, at the same time with the Woodcock’s eggs, and 
was informed that it bred regularly there. I had reason also to 
know that it bred at Tolleshunt D’Arcy, in Essex. The nest is 
made often in an osier ground or among thick water plants, and 
composed of different kinds of aquatic herbage. The eggs are 
from six to nine or ten in number, and seldom quite white in hue; 
usually they are much more like pale or faded specimens of the 
Land Rail’s eggs, the spots being both fewer and fainter.—Fig. 
6, plate IX. 
