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XJ. TURAL HISTOR J. 



that he has kept both the Indian Jacanas in confinement, and that they thrive well on shrimps, bat 

 the present bird was in the aviary rather quarrelsome with its kind. 



THE SECOND SUB-FAMILY OF THE RALLID.E. -THE TKUE RAILS AND CRAKES 



In this sub-family the claws are short, there is no frontal shield on the head, and the toes, though 

 long, are simple and without any lobes. Many of them are of large size, such as the great Aramus 

 of South America, or the Wood-hens (Ocydromua) of New Zealand. The latter cannot fly, though 

 they are of the size of a barn-door fowl. 



The most typical members of this sub-family are undoubtedly the Water Rails (Rallus) and the 



COKN-CllAKE, OR LAXD-KAIL. 



Crakes (Ortygometra), both of which are represented in England, the former by one, the latter by 

 several species. The Water Rail (Rallus aquaticus) may be easily told by its brown coloration and 

 banded flanks, but particularly by its long bill, which exceeds the head in length, whereas in the 

 Crakes this is not the case. The upper mandible and the tips of the lower one are blackish-brown, 

 the rest of the latter reddish. In colour the bird is brown, streaked with black, less distinctly on the 

 head ; the quills and tail blackish-brown ; lores and eyebrow, sides of face, and under parts slaty-grey ; 

 the abdomen and under tail-coverts ochre-colour ; flanks black, banded across with white ; the iris is 

 red. The male measures about eleven inches in length ; the female is smaller. The attenuation of the 

 body may be gathered from the fact that, although nearly a foot in length, it is not three inches across 

 the back, and hence the facility with which it threads its way through the reeds, scarcely ever rising, 

 unless driven to do so by a dog ; so that, although resident in England all the year round, it is 

 seldom seen. It is by means of keeping close in the marshes and bogs, which it affects, that it gains 

 its best assurance of security, as it is by no means a good flyer, though it swims and dives with agility. 



