WATER-RAIL. 553 



winters in South China, Burma, Eastern and Southern India, and Ceylon. 

 This eastern form is on an average slightly larger than the western race ; 

 the slate-grey on the underparts is always more or less suffused with 

 brown, the dark brown lores extend below and behind the eye, and the 

 under tail-coverts are more barred with black ; but it must be admitted 

 that no one of these characters is always constant. 



The Water-Rail is almost as exclusively a reed-bird as the Bitlern or the 

 Great Reed- Warbler. The one great object of its life appears to be to 

 conceal itself. It threads its way through reed and sedge, only occasionally 

 venturing to swim across a narrow piece of open water, and never exposing 

 itself on the muddy margin of the marsh, or venturing out to feed on the 

 grass of the neighbouring meadows, until its movements are concealed by 

 the shadows of evening. When alarmed, it is very reluctant to seek safety 

 in flight ; but runs through the grass with the celerity of a mouse, twisting 

 and twining amongst the tufts of herbage like a Grasshopper Warbler. It 

 is as unsociable as it is timid ; two pairs are seldom seen near each other, 

 and even the male and female are rarely observed together. It is said that 

 even on migration it does not fly in flocks as most birds do. It is difficult 

 to account for the extreme shyness of this species and its congeners, so 

 different from the comparative tameness of the Waterhen or the Coot. 

 Possibly the Rails have acquired their timidity and caution in consequence 

 of having endured many generations of persecution from Hawks and 

 Harriers, as the Egyptians have acquired their cowardice from generations 

 of oppression at the hands of the brutal Turkish officials ; whilst the 

 Waterhens and the Coots, like the Arabs, have pluckily fought their way 

 to the respect of their more powerful adversaries. In spite of its caution 

 the Water-Rail seems to be decreasing in numbers. The drainage of the 

 fens where it lives is no doubt one of the chief causes ; but another may be 

 found in the difficulties which it has to encounter in winter. The birds 

 which do not migrate no doubt suffer much in severe seasons, and many 

 perish both from hard frosts and the guns of sportsmen ; whilst the perils 

 of a long journey to a distant clime are unusually great to a bird of such 

 timid and solitary habits. 



Naumann states that the Water-Rail has been known to perch for a 

 moment or two in a thick willow tree. He describes its note, which is 

 only heard as the bird is flying round in the evening preparing to migrate, 

 as a clear, shrill, but melodious kreek. In the pairing-season the call-note 

 is a liquid whit, not unlike that of the Nuthatch, but is only heard after 

 dusk. 



The Water- Rail feeds upon all kinds of insects, worms, small shell-fish, 

 and gnats that are found in the swamps, and occasionally varies its diet 

 with the tender shoots of aquatic plants or the seeds of reeds and sedge. 



The Water-Rail is a somewhat early breeder, and eggs have been found 



