" Its nest is well hidden in sedge, clumps of rushes and other thick growths." 



THE WATER RAIL 



G 



OMPETENT ornithologists 

 are of opinion that this bird 

 is commoner in the British 

 Islands than is generally 

 realised. It is a lover of 

 thick cover, and its habit of 

 skulking amongst the great 

 reed beds growing on the 

 margins of lakes and meres renders it 

 most difficult to observe. The presence 

 of the species would never be suspected 

 in many parts of the country at all were 

 it not for thfe utterance of its weird call- 

 notes, which sound something like a 

 prolonged grunt ending in a kind of 

 squeal. The bird figured in our illus- 

 trations uttered her strange call-notes 

 whilst walking quite close to the hiding 

 contrivance from which the photographs 

 were taken, and in the peaceful stillness 

 of the fens I must confess that they 

 sounded startlingly uncanny. 



The Water Rail can seldom be induced 

 to take wing, and whenever I have seen 

 it compelled to do so by sporting dogs, 

 it has only flown for a short distance 

 in a heavy, awkward manner, with 



both legs dangling in the air, and 

 promptly dropped again into the nearest 

 bit of rough vegetation that afforded 

 cover. This seeming ill-fittedness for 

 aerial progression and evident dislike to 

 indulge in it are decidedly curious when 

 it is remembered that numbers of the 

 species undertake long flights across 

 the ocean every spring and autumn. 

 Tired-out individuals have been known 

 to alight on vessels five hundred miles 

 away from the nearest land. 



The Water Rail is a migratory bird, 

 in spite of the fact that it may be met 

 with at all seasons of the year in differ- 

 ent parts of the country. Extended 

 observations have led naturalists to 

 believe that those bred in the British 

 Islands retire farther south to winter, 

 and are replaced by others reared in 

 more northern climates. 



The food of the species consists of 

 snails, slugs, worms, and the tender 

 shoots and seeds of aquatic plants. 



Its nest is well hidden in sedge, clumps 

 of rushes and other thick growths to be 

 found on the shores of lakes, meres, osier 



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