and feed themselves as soon as they are hatched, they are, when half grown, as helpless on the wing as half-fledged poultry. At the pullet age, when feeding out on the mud and shoals, they are run down with great facility. At this time they are delicious eating. Persons, on whose taste I can depend, tell me, that, though a Plover be undoubtedly a fine bird for the table, and the Sanderling a great delicacy, the Mangrove-hen exceeds both; as it combines all their peculiarity of flavour with the fleshiness of the Quail. This is no small commendation.” To this interesting note, I have little to add. At Crabpond, where rounded clumps of mangroves are scattered like islets in a lake, we have observed it frequently running quickly and timidly from one cover to another, exposing itself in the open pond as little as possible. As it walks under the arched roots, it holds its short tail nearly erect. In a specimen dissected in December, I found fragments of crabs; and a large one, nearly whole, was in the craw: the stomach is a muscular gizzard. This individual was excessively fat. One brought to me alive in May, taken in a springe, bit fiercely and pertinaciously at anything presented to it, shaking it like a dog. It uttered in rapid succession the most deafening screams. The long beak, and the spurs upon the winglet, distinguish this species from our other Rails. RED RAIL.[114] _Water Partridge._ _Rallus concolor._—+Mihi.+ [114] Length 10 inches, expanse 15¹⁄₂, flexure 4⁸⁄₁₀, tail 2, rictus 1¹⁄₂₀, tarsus 1⁹⁄₁₀, middle toe 1¹⁄₂. Irides vermillion; beak yellowish-green, blackish above; feet dull purplish-crimson, or pink. Plumage reddish-brown, dark on back and wings; brighter and redder on sides; paler and more ashy on belly. Wing-quills blackish. The gallinaceous form common to the Rails, and the red hue of this species have given to it the provincial name of Water Partridge. It affects freshwater morasses, and secluded streams, rather than saline swamps, and is found even on the mountain acclivities. I have shot it skulking among the aquatic weeds at Basin Spring. As it roams, it utters at intervals of a few seconds, a _cluck_, like a hen. The remarkable thinness of body, common to all this tribe, beautifully adapts them for making their way through close herbage. It is sometimes seen perched on a low tree by the road-side, at which time it seems to have lost its usual shyness, and sits looking at the sportsman until he nearly comes up to it. Its flight is singularly ineffective; slow, heavy, and laboured; the head is projected, and the body hangs down, as I have seen the body of some unwieldy _Bombyx_, distended with eggs: the feet also are pendent. I have never found in the gizzard of the Red-Rail, (which though small, is muscular) anything but a homogeneous cream or mud of a dark brown hue; or a green mucus.