RALLIDA. 515 
THE WATER-RAIL. 
RALtus aquAticus, Linnzus. 
The Water-Rail may be considered a resident in most of the 
marshy districts of England ; but there is evidence that a consider- 
able number of the birds which have been bred in this country 
move southward in autumn, their place being taken by emigrants 
from the north. In the vicinity of the Norfolk ‘ Broads’ it is some- 
what abundant, notwithstanding a large and regrettable traffic in its 
eggs. In Scotland it is found, chiefly during the cold season, in 
suitable localities on the mainland and also on the outlying islands ; 
it even passes the winter in the Shetlands, where Saxby noticed that, 
when the frost set in, it would visit enclosed places, such as corn- 
yards, though he never discovered any grain in the stomachs of the 
specimens obtained. In Ireland the Water-Rail is resident, though 
more frequently remarked in winter, when the herbage, which at 
other times conceals it, is scanty. 
This species is only recorded as an autumn-visitor to the Feroes, 
but a few remain all the year in Iceland; and on October 15th 1882 
an example was obtained as far north as the island of Jan Mayen. 
In Norway it has been found up to Ranenfjord (close to the Arctic 
circle), and near Bergen it is to some extent stationary ; but in 
Sweden, except the south-west, it is only a summer-visitor, and it is 
rare in the Baltic Provinces of Russia, though observed as far north 
as St. Petersburg. In Northern Germany, Denmark and even 
