194 THE ANGLER'S BIRDS. 



contains four to six eggs of a gray white colour 

 very closely mottled with brown and olive 

 green, and occasionally streaked at the thick 

 end after the manner of a yellow hammer's. 

 Two broods are reared as a rule. 



THE WATER RAIL. 



A long, wet, wounded bird trying to escape 

 up a ditch, is the impression given by the 

 first sight of a water rail. Even if a stone 

 manages to induce him to rise as he is slipping 

 through the rushes, he still does so in a be- 

 draggled manner, with legs hanging down, 

 taking the first opportunity of dropping into 

 cover. You may drive one under a long low 

 cattle bridge which crosses a boggy dyke, but 

 if you have no dog with you, it will never 

 come out the other side. On the water too 

 he will plop under the surface as soon as he 

 sees you generally before you have seen him 

 and apparently never come up again. If there 

 is anything in sexual selection, it seems difficult 

 to account for a water rail ever attracting a 

 mate. He has the demeanour of an unsuccess- 

 ful felon with the plumage of an unfashionable 

 dowdy. 



The Water Rail is an all the year resident 

 on the estuary, skulking about the marshes at 

 all times and seasons; seldom seen, and seldom 

 molested. Its nest, like itself, is inconspicuous 

 besides being very well concealed, a loose bulky 

 structure composed of all the surrounding 

 rubbish ; placed just where foothold on the ooze- 



