the Rail, in ornithology; a genus belonging to the order of grallae. The beak is thickest at the base, compressed, equal, acute, and somewhat sharp on the back near the point; the nostrils are oval; the feet have four toes, without any web; and the body is compressed. Mr Latham, in his Index Ornithologicus, enumerates 24 species, besides some varieties. They are chiefly distinguished by their colour. "These birds (says Buffon) constitute a large family, and their habits are different from those of the other shore-birds, which reside on sands and gravel. The rails, on the contrary, inhabit only the flaky margins of pools and rivers, especially low grounds covered with flags and other large marsh plants. This mode of living is habitual and common to all the species of water-rails. The land rail frequents meadows, and from the disagreeable cry, or rather rattling in the throat of this bird, is derived the generic name. In all the rails, the body is slender, and shrunk at the sides; the tail extremely short; the head small; the bill pretty like that of the gallinaceous kind, though much longer, and not so thick; a portion of the leg above the knee is bare; the three fore-toes without membranes, and very long; they do not, like other birds, draw their feet under their belly in flying, but allow them to hang down: their wings are small and very concave, and their flight is short.—They seem to be more diffused than varied; and nature has produced or transported them over the most distant lands. Captain Cook found them at the Straits of Magellan; in different islands of the southern hemisphere, at Ananoka, at Tanna, and at the isle of Norfolk. In the Society Islands there are two species of rails; a little black spotted one, (poona-née), and a little red-eyed one (mai-bo). It appears that the two acolins of Fernandez, which he denominates water-quails, are of a species of rails peculiar to the great lake of Mexico.—The colins, which might be confounded with these, are a kind of partridges." The principal are,

1. The aquaticus, or water-rail, is a bird of a long slender body, with short concave wings. It delights less in flying than running: which it does very swiftly along the edges of brooks covered with bushes: as it runs, it every now and then flits up its tail, and in flying hangs down its legs; actions it has in common with the water-hen. Its weight is four ounces and a half. The length to the end of the tail is 12 inches; the breadth 16. The bill is slender, slightly incurved, one inch three quarters-long; the upper mandible black, edged with red; the lower, orange-coloured: the head, hind part of the neck, the back, and coverts of the wings and tail, are black, edged with an olive brown; the throat, breast, and upper part of the belly, are ash-coloured: the sides under the wings as far as the rump, finely varied with black and white bars. The tail is very short, consists of 12 black feathers; the ends of the two middle tipped with rust colour; the feathers immediately beneath the tail white. The legs are placed far behind, and are of a dusky flesh-colour. The toes very long, and divided to their very origin; though the feet are not webbed, it takes the water; will swim on it with much ease, but is often observed to... to run along the surface. "Water rails (says Buffon) are seen near the perennial fountains during the greatest part of the winter, yet like the land rails they have their regular migrations. They pass Malta in the spring and autumn. The Viscount de Querhoent saw some 50 leagues off the coasts of Portugal on the 17th of April. They were so fatigued, that they suffered themselves to be caught by the hand (a). Gmelin found these birds in the countries watered by the Don. Belon calls them black rails, and says they are everywhere known, and that the species is more numerous than the red rail, or land rail. The flesh of the water rail is not so delicate as that of the land rail, and has even a marshy taste, nearly like that of the gallinule. It continues the whole year in England."

2. The porzana, or gallinule, is not very frequent in Great Britain, and is said to be migratory. Inhabits the sides of small streams, concealing itself among the bushes. Its length is nine inches; its breadth, 15; its weight, four ounces five drachms. The head is brown, spotted with black; the neck a deep olive, spotted with white; the feathers of the back are black next their shafts, then olive-coloured, and edged with white; the scapulars are olive, finely marked with two small white spots on each web; the legs of a yellowish green. "Its habits (says Buffon) wild, its instinct stupid, the porzana is unresponsive of education, nor is even capable of being tamed. We raised one, however, which lived a whole summer on crumbs of bread and hemp-seed; when by itself, it kept constantly in a large bowl of water; but if a person entered the closet where it was shut, it ran to conceal itself in a small dark corner, without venting cries or murmurs. In the state of liberty, however, it has a sharp piercing voice, much like the scream of a young bird of prey; and though it has no propensity to society, as soon as one cries, another repeats the sound, which is thus conveyed through all the rest in the district. Like all the rails, it is so obstinately averse to rise, that the sportsman often seizes it with his hand, or sells it with a stick. If it finds a bush in its retreat, it climbs upon it, and from the top of its asylum beholds the dogs brushing along in fault: this habit is common to it and to the water-rail. It dives, swims, and even swims under water, when hard pushed.

"These birds disappear in the depth of winter, but return early in the spring; and even in the month of February they are common in some provinces of France and Italy. Their flesh is delicate, and much esteemed; those, in particular, which are caught in the rice-fields in Piedmont are very fat, and of an exquisite flavour."

3. The crex, crake, or corn-crex, has been supposed by some to be the same with the water-rail, and that it differs only by a change of colour at a certain season of the year: this error is owing to inattention to their characters and nature, both which differ entirely. The bill of this species is short, strong, and thick; formed exactly like that of the water-hen, and makes a general distinction. It never frequents watery places; but is always found among corn, grass, broom, or furze. It quits the kingdom before winter; but the water-rail endures our sharpest seasons. They agree in their aversion to flight; and the legs, which are remarkably long for the size of the bird, hang down whilst they are on the wing; they trust their safety to their swiftness on foot, and seldom are sprung a second time but with great difficulty. The land rail lays from 12 to 20 eggs, of a dull white colour, marked with a few yellow spots; notwithstanding this, they are very numerous in this kingdom. Their note is very singular; and like the quail, it is decoyed into a net by the imitation of its cry, crek crek crek, by rubbing hard the blade of a knife on an indented bone. Most of the names given in different languages to this bird are evidently formed to imitate this singular cry. Hence Turner and some other naturalists have supposed it to be the crex of the ancients; but that term appears to have been applied by the ancients to other birds. Philus gives the crex the epithet of pugnax, or fugitifus-winged, which would indeed suit the land-rail. Aristophanes represents it as migrating from Libya; Aristotle says that it is quarrelsome, which may have been attributed to it from the analogy to the quail; but he adds, that the crex feeks to destroy the nests of the blackbird, which cannot apply to the rail, since it never inhabits the woods. Still let's the crex of Herodotus a rail, for he compares its size to that of the ibis, which is ten times larger. The avocet, too, and the teal, have sometimes the cry crex, crex; and the bird which Belon heard repeating that cry on the banks of the Nile is, according to his account, a species of godwit. Thus the sound represented by the word crex, belonging to several species, is not sufficiently precise to distinguish the land-rail.

They are in greatest plenty in Anglesea, where they appear about the 20th of April, supposed to pass over from Ireland, where they abound: at their first arrival, it is common to shoot seven or eight in a morning. They are found in most of the Hebrides, and the Orkneys. On their arrival they are very lean, weighing only six ounces; but before they leave this island, grow so fat as to weigh above eight. The feathers on the crown of the head and hind-part of the neck are black, edged with bay colour: the coverts of the wings of the same colour, but not spotted; the tail is short, and of a deep bay: the belly white: the legs ash-coloured.