THE WATER-RAIL 181 



buoyantly, dives readily, and flies quickly but in a rather 

 laboured manner. It dislikes the open, only takes wing- 

 when compelled, and always prefers to hide amongst the 

 herbage when danger threatens. Its food is composed of 

 insects, worms, and the various small mollusks that fre- 

 quent the water. Its nest, cunningly hidden amongst 

 the reeds, is made of dry rushes and scraps of withered 

 aquatic herbage. From five to eight eggs are laid, in shape 

 something like those of the Little Grebe, buff of various 

 shades in ground colour, clouded and mottled with olive-brown 

 and gray. The eggs of the Little Crake cannot be distin- 

 guished with certainty from those of this bird, but the former 

 species has never been known to breed in this country. 

 Baillon's Crake is a resident in the fens and broads of Cam- 

 bridgeshire and Norfolk. 



