248 GRALL.E. 



four and five ounces. The bill rather more than an inch and 

 a half, dusky at the tip, reddish orange at the base of the 

 upper mandible, and along the greater part of the under 

 irides orange red ; feet, which are naked to some distance 

 above the tarsal joints, and have the toes long and slender, 

 reddish brown. Upper plumage olive brown, the centres of 

 the feathers black or dusky ; under plumage ash, with brown 

 streaks on the hinder part, and bars of black and white on 

 the sides and thighs. Wings dusky, with some white bars at 

 the bends ; bastard wing armed with a horny spine. Tail 

 short and black, margined with brown, strongly fortified with 

 coverts. The under ones white, which it shows as it flirts up 

 the tail in jerking along. There is very little difference of 

 sexual or seasonal plumage ; only the reddish tinge in the 

 bill is paler in the female than in the male, and paler in 

 winter than in summer. 



The nest is formed in thick herbage, or in holts or brakes 

 by the side of the stream, very near the water. It is formed 

 of the long and broad leaves of water plants, loosely put 

 together. The eggs are pretty numerous, but variable. They 

 are white. 



The water-rail is rather generally distributed over the 

 richer and warmer parts of the country, where the streams 

 are much bordered by cover; but it is a bird of hideling 

 habits, and not often seen, so that it is probably much more 

 numerous in reality than it appears to be. 



It is both a shy and a wary bird, running with much 

 swiftness in the open places, threading the herbage like a 

 serpent, skipping along the thin flooring of aquatic leaves, 

 wading in the shallows, running across the brook, and plying 

 every means of escape save that of flying, to which it does 

 not resort unless pressed to the last extremity. From the 

 nature of its haunts, and the number and nimbleness of its 

 evolutions, it is difficult to shoot, and it is not easily raised 

 by a dog, especially if there are shrubby brakes, which he 



