540 



THE NATURE BOOK 



ently suited. Hence may have arisen the 

 comparison " as thin as a Rail," for the 

 narrowness of this bird was probably 

 noticed, and the simile used, long before 



Photograph by Jf'>?i. Far 



WATER RAIL'S NEST. 



the days when sawn-out railings came 

 into common use. 



When a Water Rail is handled, atten- 

 tion should be given, too, to the diminu- 

 tive wing-spur, most easily to be dis- 

 covered in the black nesthng. It is 

 present in all the Rails, Coots, and Moor- 

 hens ; in the Rails it is straight and 

 comparatively blunt, but in the Coots 

 and Moorhens it is curved and sharp, like 

 a kitten's claw. Rails' feet are large and 

 long, and are suspended in flight. The 

 Water Rail has white under-tail coverts, 

 and it flirts its short tail after the manner 

 of the Woodcock and Moorhen. This 

 in ' 



lowlands where the plough does not 

 penetrate and the marshman's scythe is 

 the only cultivator besides the much- 

 worked drainage mill. 



The Water Rail's nest is a 

 large and heavy structure in 

 proportion to the size of the 

 builder, and is usually com- 

 posed of sedge and reed leaves, 

 sometimes semi-floating, but 

 ne\'er resting on deep water. 

 The eggs are milky white, 

 spotted with pale lilac and 

 pink markings ; they are large, 

 compared with the size of the 

 bird, which, whilst settling 

 itself down to incubate, does 

 its best towards self-conceal- 

 ment by drawing closer around 

 it the surrounding vegetation. 

 In the Norfolk Broads district 

 the noise made by the Water 

 Rail during the breeding season 

 is called " sharming " ; it is 

 something like a small, rasp- 

 ing screech, and I have often 

 noted it more particularly after 

 a sudden noise, such as the 

 report of a gun, or the rattle 

 of a quant knocked against 

 the side of a boat, on a still, 

 bright winter's day, just in 

 the same way that cock 

 pheasants will cackle after a 

 thunderclap. It is difficult to 

 reduce bird language to words ; 

 some people liken the Rail's 

 grunt, others to a vibrating 



to a 



notes 

 rattle 



The latter comparison is more nearly 

 descriptive of the v'entriloquial voice of 

 the " creck-crecking " Land Rail, a bird of 

 the pastures and corn lands, though it 

 delights in dry marshes where insect food 

 abounds. The happily named Corncrake 

 does untold good in devoin^ing the "Daddy- 

 Long-Legs," or Crane-fly, the larvae of 

 which — called " leather jackets " on 

 account of the toughness of their skins — 

 do much damage to grass roots. So 

 partial is the Land Rail to the perfect 

 insect that I have shot more than one 



bird occurs both in winter and summer, in a day so gorged with them that their 



and, indeed, winters here more frequently legs have protruded from the bird's 



than is generahy supposed ; but those that over-charged gullet. 



breed with us can only be found in the Many birds seem to levy toll upon this 



