WATER RAIL. 161 



as a breeding species ; but in Belgium, France, and Southern 

 Germany it is a well-known resident, as well as a partial 

 migrant. It breeds in considerable numbers in the Spanish 

 Peninsula, and stretches eastward through Italy and the 

 islands of the Mediterranean to Greece, Turkey, and 

 Southern Kussia, being found in the Caucasus up to a con- 

 siderable elevation. In Morocco, where it occurs on migra- 

 tion, it probably breeds, as it certainly does in the marshes 

 of Algeria, where Canon Tristram found it as far as 

 Laghouat ; but in Egypt it is principally a winter visitant, 

 seldom passing south of the delta of the Nile, although it 

 has been recorded from Abyssinia. In South Africa it is 

 replaced by R. ccerulescens. 



The Water Bail occurs, and probably breeds, in the 

 marshes of the Persian shores of the Caspian, in Western 

 Turkestan, Afghanistan, Kashgar, Yarkand, Gilgit, where 

 Dr. Scully found it on the spring migration, down to what 

 Mr. Hume calls the Sub -Himalayan district.* South of 

 this limit, down to Ceylon, it is replaced by a very closely 

 allied form, also a migrant Rallus indicus which is 

 slightly larger, has a dusky streak reaching not only through 

 the lores, but also extending to the ear-coverts, and is also 

 paler and more buff-tinted on the under parts than the 

 European bird. These differences are not always strongly 

 defined in a large series of skins ; but if the specific validity 

 of these and some minor points be admitted, it would then 

 appear that Rallus indicus is the representative form from 

 India to China and Southern Siberia, and also in, Japan ; 

 some ornithologists, however, maintain the specific distinct- 

 ness of R. japonicus, Schlegel. 



Like other members of the family, the Water Rail is 

 capable of long flights. The Rev. Robert Holdsworth wrote 

 me word that a bird of this species alighted on the yard of a 

 man-of-war, about five hundred miles to the westward of 

 Cape Clear, and at the same distance from any known land. 

 An officer of the ship caught it, and took care of it, and 

 carried it with him to Lisbon, feeding it with bits of raw 



* Game Birds of India, ii. p. 261. 

 VOL. III. Y 



