178 KALLID.E 



readily distinguished from the Corn-Crake by its much 

 longer beak and darker plumage. Unlike the latter, it is 

 resident to a considerable extent, and indeed, is generally 

 observed in autumn and winter more often than in the 

 breeding-season. It is not improbable that numbers of' 

 our home-bred birds move southward in autumn, while 

 migrants from higher latitudes make their appearance and 

 remain with us throughout the winter. That this species 

 is migratory in its habits is evident from the fact that num- 

 bers have been taken at remote lighthouses and lightships 

 (Barrington). 



FIG. 22. WATER-RAIL. 



The Water-Rail is a much more plentiful British species 

 than is popularly supposed, but it is often overlooked owing 

 to its habits of skulking among thick aquatic vegetation on 

 swampy and even' shaky bog-land, which the most ardent 

 snipe-shooter will hesitate before traversing, and also 

 because of its strong disinclination to take wing when 

 hunted. I have frequently shot it in frosty weather when 

 it is driven to resort to more exposed situations, such as dry 

 ditches, rough pasture-land, and along the margins of running 

 streams. In hard weather I have seen a Water-Bail outwit a 

 Cocker-spaniel which was on its track, by running along the 



