THE WATER-RAIL. 37 



The beak is 'red, eyes hazel, top of the head, neck, back, 

 and wing-coverts and upper surface of the body olive- 

 brown, each feather having a dark centre; front of the 

 neck and breast lead-grey, sides and flanks slaty barred 

 with white, legs and toes brownish flesh-colour. 



Seebohm says : " The water-rail is almost as exclusively 

 a reed bird as the bittern or great reed- warbler. The one 

 great object of its life appears to be to conceal itself. It 

 threads its way through reed and sedge, only occasionally 

 venturing to swim across a narrow piece of open water, 

 and never exposing itself or venturing out to feed on the 



THE WATER-RAIL. 



grass in the neighbouring meadows until its movements are 

 concealed by the shadows of evening." 



Lord Lilford (Field, December 8, 1888) says that the 

 water-rail has a considerable variety of notes a shrill, 

 twittering, long-drawn " skirl," to be heard at all times of 

 the year, especially in the early morning or evening ; also 

 a sharp single note, somewhat resembling the twit of the 

 pied woodpecker ; also a low chuckle when in search of 

 food, with a continual pecking of the tail, after the fashion 

 of the common water-hen." He states also that a gun- 

 shot or a distant roll of thunder will often set off the water- 



