522 



R A L L U S. 



ceal themselves. Indeed if one -searches the place 

 in which a bird of this kind has taken refuge, the bird 

 is not to be found, neither is there any clue to the 

 direction that it may have taken. Their running 

 powers are so great that hardly any animal can keep 

 pace with them in the cover, and they turn and 

 double with such rapidity, and disturb, the vegetation 

 so very little, that they cannojt be tracked. Thus, if 

 one rouses the common water-rail in the bed of a 

 stream, and pursues it up the current, it will run and 

 wade and scramble in that direction, but the moment 

 that it gets to a cover it bores through, gains the 

 opposite side, doubles, arid never stops till it is far- 

 ther down than the point at which it was first seen. 

 During the day too they repose in silence and secrecy, 

 and do not rise if they can avoid it. Very early and 

 very late, when the ground is damp, and the rnollusca 

 and worms out, are their feeding times, and some of 

 them continue even the whole night long. This is 

 especially the case with the corncrake ; and so close 

 does the female of that species sit, that there have 

 been instances of the sitke of the mower destroying 

 her on her nest, without his being aware of her or 

 her nest being there. All the species nestle in as 

 close concealment as they live. The nest is formed 

 in a thick tuft of rushes, sedges, or other aquatic 

 plants, in the case of those that frequent the banks of 

 streams ; and those that keep in the cover of the 

 Broad herbage, without approaching close to the 

 waters, nestle . in that. In this close- cover, little 

 labour is bestowed on the construction of a nest, as 

 the nest is used only during the time of hatching the 

 eggs. No ground or running bird exhausts much of 

 its energy in nest-building, and it would be contrary 

 to the general law of nature's economy that it should, 

 for nature never overdoes any more than she fails. 

 The young are able to run and seek their own food 

 almost the moment that they break the shell, but 

 what attention the mother pays to them after is not 

 well known, in consequence of the hiding dispositions 

 of the birds. The family may keep together, and 

 with the mother, while they are very young, but the 

 family are not found in a society after they are 

 fledged ; their instinct for solitude and retirement 

 appears 'to operate at a far earlier age than it does 

 in even the least social of the gallinidse, which these 

 birds resemble in some particulars, though they differ 

 greatly from them in others. The eggs, as in most 

 ground birds that breed in rich places or in cover of 

 any kind, are rather numerous, rarely fewer than six 

 in the hatch, and often as many as ten. The eggs 

 are generally of a dull sand-yellow colour, mottled 

 with reddish-brown spots, and not very easily distin- 

 guished from the withered grass and moss on which 

 they are placed. We shall now notice a few of the 

 species, first of the rails properly so called, and then 

 of the crakes, though we do not .think the particular 

 distinctions of them as subgenera or sections are of 

 very great importance. 



The true rails have the bill longer tTian the head, 

 slender, and sometimes slightly arched ; the nostrils 

 in the channel of the upper mandible ; the anterior 

 toes quite free, and the hind one articulated a little 

 higher up than the others. The head is small, the 

 neck rather long, the shoulders tapering, and the body 

 narrow and compressed, obviously formed for making 

 its way through close bushes arid herbape. In its 

 form it is the very reverse of a swimming body, and 

 yet the birds cari, upon emergency, swim a consider- 



able way, though they never do so if they can avoid 

 it. They eat, in addition to the animal food that has 

 been mentioned, the pulpy seeds of aquatic plants, 

 but they prefer the animal substances. Their pas- 

 tures are always rich, as they form the most productive 

 portions of the countries in which the birds are found ; 

 and f*hey shift about, so as to avoid equally the effects 

 of heat and of drought. They do it in such a way, 

 however, that very little can be observed 1 of their 

 movements. Their slow march is stately, and with 

 long steps ; and in their running they bring the whole 

 axis of the body to a horizontal line. Their flight is 

 more rapid and less fluttering than the roundness of 

 their wings would lead us to suppose ; but, as is the 

 case with almost every bird of the order to which 

 they belong, they fly with the legs hanging down, 

 ready to alight whenever they corne to a locality that 

 suits their purpose. In general they take their re- 

 pose upon the ground, but they sometimes perch 

 upon bushes, or low branches of thick trees, though 

 they never fly to a high perch, except to get out of 

 the reach of a ground enemy. The predatory mam- 

 malia, which lurk and prowl among the bushes near 

 the water?, are their chief enemies ; and, as these are 

 chiefly night-feeders as well as themselves, they are 

 on the watch against them. From birds of prey they 

 have not much'to fear ; for, though bog eagles and 

 marsh harriers often beat over their pastures, the 

 birds are in the cover, and still, at the times when 

 these are on the wing. 



THE WATER RArL (R. aquaticus) is the species 

 best known. It inhabits watery places ; but the 

 banks of running streams, rather than the borders of 

 fens and marshes, in most parts of Europe and A.sia. 

 In some parts of Britain it is not so, as it is rarely 

 seen, but it is not found in the cold and upland dis- 

 tricts. It breeds in the country, and remains nearly 

 stationary all the year round in some places, but it 

 migrates entirely from others during the severe 

 weather. 



The length of the full-grown male bird is about 

 ten inches, and the stretch of the wings sixteen. The 

 bill to the gape measures an inch and three quarters. 

 The upper mandible is black, except the edges, and 

 the tip, of the lower mandible is the same colour; 

 the remainder of the bill, the inside of the gape 

 and the irides are orange-yellow ; but the narrow 

 naked border of the eyes is greenish black. The 

 general plumage on the upper part is black, but 

 each feather tells distinctly in consequence of being 

 margined pretty broadly with olive -brown. The 

 feathers on the front have a portion of the tif)s 

 of the shafts enlarged, and without any webs. The 

 chin, a spot under each eye, and the naked skin from 

 the gape to the eye, are white. The throat, the 

 neck, and the breast, are bluish-grey ; and the belly 

 whitish-orange, passing into pure white on the under 

 coverts of the tail. The wings are dusky with whitish 

 margins, the inner webs of the quills broad, and 

 the outer ones narrow. The tail-feathers, which are 

 twelve \n number, are also dusky, but their margins 

 are olive. The sides of the body are mottled, and 

 barred with black, white, and some orange. The 

 legs are dusky, naked to about three-quarters of an 

 inch above the tarsal joints ; and they and the toes 

 are covered with shielding plates on the anterior and 

 upper surfaces, and with reticulated scales on the 

 posterior, and under. The female is marked nearly 

 in the same manner as the male, but has the bill 



