WATER-RAIL 195 
RALLUS AQUATICUS, Linn. WATER-RAIL. 
ScaREGRASS (cf. ‘Scarragrise,’ Lanc.); WATER WrReEN (Kermode). 
This species is included in the Game Acts of 1882 (not 
in that of 1835). In 1888 Mr. Kermode notes it as 
resident in small numbers. 
The retiring nature of this bird and the haunts it 
inhabits make it very difficult to judge of its distribution 
and abundance, but specimens have been taken all over 
the island. Mr. J. Maddrell tells me that he has often 
flushed them from the ditch-like, partly artificial, streams 
flowing into Poolvash, along which rank vegetation grows 
abundantly. Mr. Adams says that they are found about 
the Nunnery and the pond at ‘Belle Vue, and during the 
winter of 1901-2 he saw quite a number of specimens, alive 
and dead. During the same winter Mr. T. Fargher sent 
me a specimen from Lonan, and I have been told that it 
is not rare about Laxey, though the steep slopes and rapid 
waters of that district seem very ill-suited to its habits. 
In the Curragh, which on the contrary seems very suitable, 
I was unable to hear of it, until Mr. Graves in May 1903 
found a disused nest with fragments of shells, and later, 
on the 6th of June, he discovered another with eight eggs. 
This was a light poor structure of grass, lined with frag- 
ments of rush, built in a damp waste thickly sprinkled 
with willow bushes (Zool., 1903, p. 317). On 21st June 
a third nest with six eggs was found in the same locality. 
The scraps of rush which in all or most of these nests 
formed the principal part of the structure were from half 
an inch to three inches long, making a fairly thick though 
not deep cup. The stems had evidently been deliberately 
broken into these small pieces. The nests were closely 
