FULICARIsE. ( 200 ) RALLID^E. 



THE WATER BAIL. 



BILCOCK, RUNNER, SKIT, SKIDDY-COCK. 



Rallus aquaticus. 



lead on, where through the reedy bank 



The insinuating waters ', filter 'd, stray 

 In many a winding maze. 



SOMERVILLE. 



THIS bird is occasionally seen in Berwickshire during the 

 autumn and winter months. It is, however, by no means 

 plentiful, and as yet there is no record of its breeding in 

 the county. Owing to its skulking habits, and the difficulty 

 of finding the nest amongst the rank herbage of the marshes 

 which the bird frequents, it may, however, nest unobserved 

 in some of the few remaining bogs, such as Eedpath Bog, in 

 Earlston parish, or amongst some of the reedy pools and 

 ditches between Greenlaw and "Westruther. 1 



The Water Eail inhabits swamps and marshes, and the 

 sides of streams, lakes, and pools, as well as ditches over- 

 grown with reeds and other rank herbage, where it skulks, 

 and from which it can scarcely be forced to take wing. 



Mr. John Wilson, writing in 1872, mentions that he 

 had seen the Water Kail on Edington Mains Farm four or 

 five times during a residence there of sixty years. 2 A 

 specimen is recorded by Mr. John Ferguson, Duns, as 

 having been shot amongst the reeds at the side of Duns 



1 Mr. Smith, late gamekeeper at Duns Castle, tells me that a pair of Water 

 Rails frequented the lake there throughout the seasons of 1887, 1888, and 1889, 

 and probably nested amongst the reeds. 



2 Hist. Ber. Nat. Club, vol. vi. p. 400. 



