THE ANGLER'S BIRDS. 195 



bank is treacherous and evil smelling, and is 

 additionally protected by an overhanging 

 tussock of grass or rush just the place in fact 

 which one would pass by. The eggs are 

 smaller than a moorhen's, in number six or 

 seven, the colouring being almost identical, buff 

 white, speckled with darker brown or mauve. 

 As nests with fresh eggs can be found in June 

 it is probable that two broods are reared in 

 the season. 



At the end of May, a few years back, I 

 came across a mother with her young chicks 

 on the lower Itchen among some rushes in a 

 shallow embayment. In her desperate hurry 

 to collect them all and escape observation, one 

 was left behind, a little fluffy black urchin, 

 which took a wrong turning and struck out 

 into the current, cheeping dolefully. The 

 mother made a half turn towards it, but 

 catching sight of me, retreated after her family 

 leaving the straggler to its fate. 



Once in the swift current it could do nothing, 

 so I got the landing net and ran down the 

 bank meaning to intercept it at the next bend; 

 but, unluckily, it had sufficient strength and 

 sense to paddle away just out of reach as the 

 net made a sweep for it. As I watched it 

 carried away I wondered whether a Jack would 

 take it, but the keeper afterwards said a rat 

 probably swam out and seized it within the 

 first hundred yards. 



In adult plumage the water rail is a dull 

 bird, its back a decayed brown and its under 



