276 THE BIRDS OF DEVOX. 



Water-Rail. Ballus aquaticus, Linn, 



[Skiddy Cock, Skit-y-cock, Skip Cock, Skitty Cock, Grey Skit, Gutter 

 Cock, Ore Cock : Dev.'] 



Resident, and common in some parts of the countj', and, it is said, 

 nreeds in the nei2:hbourhood of Dartmoor, and occasionally at Slapton Ley, 

 hut it is most frequently seen at the end of September and beginning of 

 October, All that we have met with ourselves near Exeter occurred in 

 the autumn and winter, at which seasons there is certainly an immigration 

 from other places (W. D'U.). It breeds on Lundy Island (Trans. Devon. 

 Assoc, viii. p. 307). Individuals are frequently chopped bv sporting dogs 

 in thick sedges and reels, amongst which they become entangled when 

 closely pursued. They seem to offer an irresistible temptation to the 

 canine palate, no amount of punishment deterring a doirfrom eating them. 

 Mr. E. A. S. Elliot notices a great variation in size independent of sex. 



The Water-Rail, or Skitty Cock, as it is commonly called, is a common 

 resident in Xorth Devon, to be met with in almost everv warm ditch, 

 where there is sufficient cover of tangled brambles, in sedgy dikes in 

 the marshes, in swampy bottoms of woods, and by the sides of streams, 

 where they are bordered with ])atches of furze, bramble, or other cover. 

 The bird skulks in the shelter such places afford, is rarely seen at any 

 distance from them in the open, and is not easy to flush, even with a 

 good dog. When pressed by a spaniel we have seen it climb up and jierch. 

 upon a bough, as a ^[oor-hcn often does. We still possess eggs taken out 

 of a nest which was placed in a hedge by the side of a drain, near our 

 house in North Devon. When we resided in Wales, we had some Water- 

 Rails about our grounds which were semi-domesticated, and used to feed 

 on the lawn in front of our dining-room window, in company with the 

 Moor-hens. They were occasionally noticed running on the garden paths 

 at dusk, when they looked like large rats. In severe frosts these Rails 

 may ])e observed in the daytime feeding by the margin of warm drains, 

 running into the hedge, and effectually concealing themselves in an 

 instant, when any one approaches ; and after a continuance of hard 

 weather strings of Water-Rails may be found hanging up in the game- 

 dealers' shops, proving that the bird is more numerous than it is generall}' 

 supposed to be. Frozen out from their sanctuaries and half-starved, thev 

 then become the spoil of every hedge-popper. The flesh of the Water-Rail 

 is very sweet and toothsome, but there is so little of it that we have never 

 considered it worth while to lift our gun against the bird for the sake of 

 the spit. Although so common a bird, its shy and retiring habits prevent 

 it from being generally known, so that we are often having specimens 

 brought to ns as something very rare, and we once found one hanging up 

 in the bar of an hotel, waiting for some one to say what it was, and were 

 told that it had been there already for several days, and no one could name 

 it, although there was a moor at the back of the hotel, intersected by 

 sedgy drains, where Water-Rails were plentiful. 



