WATER RAIL. 147 
Famiry RALLIDA. 
WATER RAIL. 
Rativs aquaticus, Linn. 
Pl. XXL, fig. 8. 
Geogr. distr.—Throughout Europe, India, N. Africa: generally in 
Great Britain, and resident. 
Food.—Aquatic insects, Mollusca, and worms; vegetable diet only 
when pressed by hunger. 
Nest.—Large and loosely constructed, of stems and bent leaves of 
flags, rush or sedge, and dried leaves of aquatic plants, and lined with 
dry fragments of reed stems. 
Position of nest.—Well concealed amongst reeds and rushes in 
marshy ground, or upon half-floating rnshes. 
Number of eggs.—8-10, and sometimes more. 
Time of nidvfication.—IV-VII. 
Common in most stagnant waters, very quick in its 
motions; when alarmed it is very clever in counterfeiting 
death, and Mr. Phillips (‘ Zoologist,’ 1882, p. 218) mentions 
that once, when shooting, he flushed a Water Rail, at which 
he fired, when the bird immediately fell to the ground. On 
picking it up, it lay in his hand for some minutes motion- 
less, and, to all appearance, dead. He was looking for a 
-shot mark, when, chancing to turn his head away for a 
moment, it flew off without the slightest warning. 
Though a fairly common species, the Water Rail is so 
shy and retiring in its habits, dwelling in the cover of the 
reeds and coarse vegetation of our marshes, and rarely 
showing, unless in danger of capture by a dog, that it 
appears to be quite a rare bird. In some localities, indeed, 
it is scarce enough, and in Shetland it is said to be by 
no means common; but on the Norfolk Broads during the 
nesting season one may frequently hear its loud cry. The 
nest is difficult to find, being placed in the midst of densely- 
growing reeds and rank herbage. Mr. Seebohm thus 
describes one taken by himself :—-‘ The nest was admirably 
concealed, and with all our care we only caught a mo- 
mentary glimpse of the bird as she disappeared. Such a 
nest can only be found by accident. The perfect silence of 
the bird, the quiet way in which she slips off the nest and 
threads her way amongst the sedge and reeds, and the abso- 
lute concealment of the nest itself, which cannot be seen 
until the vegetation which hangs over it is pulled aside, make 
it an almost hopeless task to try and find a nest in such 
extensive reed-beds.”—(Hist. Brit. Birds, vol. ii., p. 554.) 
The egg which I have figured is in Mr. Seebohm’s 
collection. 
