British Birds in Their Haunts

by C. A. Johns

Head brown; upper plumage olive-ash, the feathers black in the centre; middle of the back black, sprinkled with white; throat, face, and breast, bluish grey, without spots; abdomen and flanks indistinctly barred with white and brown; wings without spots, reaching to the extremity of the tail; bill green, reddish at the base; irides red; feet green. Length seven and a half inches. Eggs yellowish, spotted with olive-brown.

This species appears to be generally diffused throughout the eastern and southern countries of Europe, but is very rare in England, coming now and again from spring to autumn. It is a shy bird, like the last species, confining itself exclusively to reedy marshes, and building its nest close to the water's edge. It lays seven or eight eggs.

THE WATER RAIL
RALLUS AQUÁTICUS

Upper feathers reddish brown, with black centres; under plumage in front lead-colour, behind and on the flanks barred with black and white; bill red, tinged with red above and at the tip; irides red; feet flesh-colour. Length ten inches. Eggs yellowish, spotted with ash-grey and red-brown.

The Water Rail is a generally diffused bird, but nowhere very common, haunting bushy and reedy places near the banks of rivers and lakes, and especially the Norfolk Broads, where it feeds on aquatic insects, worms, and snails. Like the Crakes, it makes more use of its legs than of its wings, and places its safety in concealment. Rarely does it take flight, and then only when closely hunted; still more rarely does it expose itself outside its aquatic jungle. I recollect on one occasion, during an intense frost, when every marsh was as impenetrable to a bird's bill as a sheet of marble, passing in a carriage near a stream which, having just issued from its source, was unfrozen; I then saw more than one Water Rail hunting for food among the short rushes and grass on the water's edge. Its mode of walking I thought was very like that of the Moor-hen, but it had not the jerking movement of body characteristic of that bird, which alone would have sufficed to distinguish it, even if I had not been near enough to detect the difference of colour. Either the severity of the weather had sharpened its appetite, and made it less shy than usual, or it had not learnt to fear a horse and carriage, for it took no notice of the intrusion on its privacy, but went on with its search without condescending to look up. The Water Rail, then, unlike the Corn Crake, remains with us all the winter. When forced to rise, this bird flies heavily straight forwards, at no great elevation above the rushes, with its legs hanging loose, and drops into the nearest thicket of weeds. A nest and eggs of this bird are thus described in the Annals of Natural History: 'The bird had selected for her nest a thick tuft of long grass, hollow at the bottom, on the side of the reed pond; the nest, about an inch and a half thick, was composed of withered leaves and rushes; it was so covered by the top of the grass, that neither bird, nest, nor eggs could be seen; the entrance to the nest was through an aperture of the grass, directly into the reeds, opposite to where any one would stand to see the nest.' The number of eggs is about ten or eleven. Its note during breeding is a loud, groaning cro-o-o-an.

THE MOOR-HEN
GALLÍNULA CHLÓROPUS

Upper plumage deep olive-brown; under tail-coverts and edge of the wing white, the former with a few black feathers; under plumage slate colour, the flanks streaked with white; base of the bill and a space on the forehead bright orange, point of the bill yellow; irides red; feet olive-brown; a red ring round the tibia. In females the colours are brighter than in the males. Young birds have the front of the neck whitish, the belly grey, the base of the beak and legs olive-brown. Length thirteen inches. Eggs buff, spotted and speckled with orange-brown.