THE RAIL. 243 



RAIL (Eallus). 



From the last-mentioned rare, or at all events obscure and 

 imperfectly known, species of crake, to the rail, the transition 

 is natural and not very great. In the crakes themselves 

 there is a gradation, from the corn-crake which hides itself in 

 the humid field covered with tall herbage, but does not enter 

 the marsh, or breed in herbage decidedly aquatic, to the little 

 crake, which, keeping more constantly in warm localities, 

 dwells so close among the aquatic herbage on the margins of 

 pools, and the banks of slow-running streams, that it is rarely 

 seen, and which can take the water upon emergency, which 

 the corn-crake is not known to do. 



A flat surface and a cover of annual or herbaceous vege- 

 tation vegetation rising upon culms, and not branching 

 stems, so that they can make their way through it with ease 

 and rapidity are thus the place and the furnishing for the 

 crakes ; and as the birds quit whenever the furnishing fails, 

 in the course of the season or otherwise, we are warranted in 

 concluding that the kind of place and the kind of plants are 

 alike necessary for the supply of their food. 



In respect of season, therefore, though not of locality, the 

 . crakes are somewhat analogous to the warblers. The warblers 

 can inhabit only where the groves, the brakes, or the marshy 

 holts, are in foliage, and they feed among the leaves. 



The crakes can inhabit only where the surface is clothed 

 by a thick crop of tall stems, which exclude the action of the 

 sun, and thus favour the growth of those small but, under 

 favourable circumstances, very prolific animals upon which 

 the birds feed. 



It is only at very particular spots on the surface of the 

 globe, that birds of such habits can find perennial haunts. In 

 the polar climes, there is not sufficient cover for them at any 

 season, and in the tropical countries, those portions of the 



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