126 Among the Birds in Northern Shires. 



or bog will content a Water Rail, provided there is a 

 sufficiency of cover. Like our old friend the Moor- 

 hen, it may also often be met with wandering from 

 its usual boggy retreats into such unlikely places as 

 gardens and farmyards. Although it is flushed with 

 difficulty, it is by no means uncommonly seen on 

 open spots or even in the branches of trees. In not 

 a few heaths it is an almost unknown and unsus- 

 pected dweller in the marshy drains and round the 

 rushes that fringe the shallow pools where peat or 

 turf has been cut; indeed, we have met with it 

 almost within hail of some of our busiest towns. Its 

 rather bulky nest, made of a varied collection of dead 

 and decaying herbage and aquatic plants, is always 

 placed upon the ground in some quiet nook in its 

 haunts, and its half-dozen or so eggs are buff in 

 ground colour, spotted with reddish-brown and gray. 

 Though far more local than the preceding, the 

 Spotted Crake must also be included in our review 

 of northern bird-life. Unlike the Water Rail, how- 

 ever, it is a summer migrant to the British Islands. 

 Some individuals, however, appear to winter with us 

 in the southern counties. The migrants appear in 

 April in the south, several weeks later in the north. 

 The habits of the two species are similar in many 

 respects. The Lapwing, the Redshank, and the 

 Common Snipe may also be met with in these situa- 

 tions, the Redshank in summer only, when it retires 



