Water, v. To irrigate, to supply with moisture; to supply with water for drink.
Water Crake, Spotted Rail, Lesser Spotted Water Rail, Skitty, or Spotted Gallinule, (Rallus porcana, Linn.; La Marouette, Buff.) s.
WATER CRAKE.
This bird weighs about four ounces, and measures nearly nine inches in length, and about fifteen in breadth. The bill is of a greenish-yellow, and not more than three quarters of an inch long. The top of the head, to the nape, is dusky, and slightly streaked with rusty-brown; a brown and white mottled stripe passes from the bill over and behind the eyes; the cheeks and throat are of a freckled dull grey. The neck and breast are olive, marked with small white spots; the sides dusky and olive, crossed with bars of white, and the under parts are a mixture of cinereous, dirty and white yellow. The colour of the plumage of all the upper parts is dusky and olive-brown, spotted, edged, barred or streaked with white; the spots on the wing-coverts are surrounded with black, which gives them a studded or pearly appearance; and the white bars and streaks on the scapulars and tertials form a beautiful contrast to the black ground of the feathers on these parts. The legs are of a yellowish-green. The water-crake in its figure and general appearance, though much less, is extremely like the corn-crake or land-rail; but its manners and habits are very different. Its common abode is in low, swampy grounds, in which are pools or streamlets, overgrown with willows, reeds, and rushes, where it lurks and hides itself with great circumspection; it is wild, solitary, and shy, and will swim, dive, or skulk under any cover; and sometimes it is said, will suffer itself to be knocked on the head, rather than rise before the sportsman and his dog. This species is very scarce in Great Britain, and from its extreme vigilance it is rarely to be seen. It is supposed to be migratory here, as well as in France and Italy, where it is found early in the spring; it is also met with in other parts of Europe, but no where in great numbers. The conformation of its nest is curious; it is made of rushes and other light, buoyant materials, woven and matted together, so as to float on, and to rise or fall with the ebbing or flowing of the water, like a boat; and to prevent its being swept away by floods, it is moored or fastened to the pendent stalk of one of the reeds, by which it is screened from the sight, and sheltered from the weather. The female lays from six to eight eggs. The young brood do not long require the fostering care of the mother, but as soon as they are hatched, the whole of the little black shapeless family scramble away from her, take to the water, separate from each other, and shift for themselves. The flesh is said to have a fine and delicate flavour, and is esteemed by epicures a delicious morsel.—Bewick.
Watercresses, s. A plant. There are five species.
Water Cricket or Creeper, s. A cricket used as bait for fish.
It is an error to suppose this the same as the cad bait, for though generally found by the water side, the latter is always in some kind of husk, the creeper never, nor has ever wings, and cannot therefore be the stone-fly; it may be kept in the same way as the cadis.
They may be kept in a large horn, like that for powder, with gravel at the bottom, and some holes at the sides to admit air: the mouth of the horn should be wide enough to receive a quart bottle cork, and should be placed in water with the creepers, when not using them.—Daniel.
Water Dog, s. A rough and web-footed spaniel.