558 THE RAILS 



coverts have short streaks of white along the margins of both webs, and the major 

 coverts have transverse bars of white margined with black. The quills are sepia, 

 and the outer web of the outermost primary is white. The lateral upper tail-coverts 

 are black with terminal spots of olive-brown, bounded by subterminal spots of 

 white. The tail feathers are dark brown with paler margins. The forehead 

 and a band over the eye are bluish slate-grey ; the auriculars, and a band down 

 the side of the neck, are olive-brown, passing backwards into the flanks. The 

 throat and fore-breast are slate-grey, the latter tinged with olive-brown and spotted 

 with white. The breast and abdomen are dull white, while the hinder flanks are 

 slaty brown crossed by broad white bars. The beak is yellowish, the legs and 

 toes are green. The iris is red-brown. The female is duller, having the throat 

 dull white, and a more pronounced brown hue on the breast. In the juvenile 

 dress the slate-grey of the forehead and eye-stripe and of the breast is wanting, 

 these areas being of a dull, pale brown. The spots on the fore-neck are smaller, 

 and the hinder flanks are olive-brown, with narrower transverse white bars than 

 in the adult. The downy young is black, [w. P. p.] 



2. Distribution. At the present time there are very few breeding records 

 of this species from the British Isles, but owing to its skulking habits it is no doubt 

 often overlooked. It has bred in several of our southern counties, and probably 

 still does so in small numbers, as well as in East Anglia. It has also been recorded 

 as breeding in several counties bordering on the Trent, Yorkshire, Lincoln, Notts, 

 and S. Derby, but varies in number from year to year. Northward it appears to 

 have bred in Lancashire, Durham, and Northumberland, and occasionally in South 

 Scotland, while it is said to have nested in Elgin, and is known to haunt the bogs of 

 Brecon. It has been found breeding in Ireland in Roscommon and Kerry, and heard 

 in spring in Co. Waterford. On the Continent it ranges north to about 65 in Norway, 

 nearly 64 in Finland, and 61 in the Urals. From here it is found in marshy 

 districts throughout Europe south to the Mediterranean, and probably in most 

 of the larger islands, especially Sicily. In North-west Africa it probably breeds 

 in Tunisia and Algeria ; and has been met with in Abyssinia in the breeding 

 season. In Asia it is found east to Tomsk and the Altai, and south to Gilgit. In 

 winter it ranges to the Canaries, Africa, chiefly to the north and tropical regions, 

 but occasionally even in the south (Bechuanaland and Kalahari desert) ; in Asia 

 to Mesopotamia and chiefly Northern India ; and is a casual in Greenland. 

 [F. c. R. J.] 



3.. Migration. Chiefly a summer visitor to its English breeding-area, but 



