WATER-EAIL. 198 



WATER-RAIL. 



Ballus aquaticus. 



The Water-Rail is generally distributed^ and may be found 

 in the coarse herbage bordering streams and ditches. It is 

 resident, though it seems very susceptible of cold, as I have 

 several times, in very severe weather, observed it standing on 

 one leg, ■with its feathers puffed out, and its head sunk 

 between its shoulders, apparently asleep, for it has suffered 

 me to take it in my hand. It feeds on small fish, tadpoles, 

 mollusks, insects, and seeds. When pressed by a dog it often 

 scrambles up into a bush, and I once observed a wounded one 

 walking on the horizontal limb of an oak about 20 feet from 

 the ground. From the gizzard I took several perfect speci- 

 mens of Clausilia nigricans and the broken shells of Aplesnus 

 hypnorwn. Its flight is slow, the legs hanging down. I 

 once found a nest, in a very wet spot on Henfield Common, 

 composed of green flags, and lined with finer aquatic plants, 

 containing nine eggs. It has many times, in April and 

 October, been caught in the gardens and streets of Brighton. 

 Its call-note is a loud, hoarse, half-choked whistle, uttered 

 principally at night. 



It runs very swiftly, and swims well, if requisite. Mr. 

 Jeffery (P. N.) states that he has found several small Millers' 

 Thumbs [Coitus gobio) in its interior, and also mentions that 

 a nest was found near Up Park, on a heath at a distance 

 from water, pretty well concealed, but having a run to and 

 from it. Mr. Harting informs me that he has twice found 

 the nest of the Water-Rail in the parish of Harting, where 

 he has repeatedly seen the bird during the winter months, 

 sometimes running, like a rat, along the side of a ditch ; at 

 others, flushed by the dogs in the swampy ground bordering 



