Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/241

Rh R A I R A I 223 the same may be said in regard to low -lying marshy meadows, in most of which it is in season always to be heard, while in others having a close resemblance to them it is never met with. The nest is on the ground, generally in long grass, and therein from nine to eleven eggs are commonly laid. These are of a cream-colour, spotted and blotched with light red and grey. The young when hatched are thickly clothed with black down, as is the case in nearly all species of the Family. The WATER-RAIL, locally known as the Skiddy or Bill- cock, is the Rallus aquations of Ornithology, and seems to be less abundant than the preceding, though that is in some measure due to its frequenting places into which from their swampy nature men do not often intrude. Having a general resemblance to the Land-Rail, 1 it can be in a moment distinguished by its partly red and much longer bill, and the darker coloration of its plumage the upper parts being of an olive brown Avith black streaks, the breast and belly of a sooty grey, and the flanks dull black barred with white. Its geographical distribution is very wide, extending from Iceland (where it is said to preserve its existence during winter by resorting to the hot springs) to China ; and though it inhabits Northern India, Lower Egypt, and Barbary, it seems not to pass beyond the tropical line. It never affects upland districts as does the Land- Rail, but always haunts wet marshes or the close vicinity of water. Its love-note is a loud and harsh cry, not con- tinually repeated as is that of the Land-Rail, but uttered at considerable intervals and so suddenly as to have been termed "explosive." Besides this, which is peculiar to the cock-bird, it has a croaking call that is frog-like. The eggs resemble those of the preceding, but are more brightly and delicately tinted. The various species of Rails, whether allied to the former or latter of those just mentioned, are far too numerous to be here noticed. Hardly any part of the world is without a representative of the genera Crcx or Rallus, and every considerable country has one or perhaps more of each though it has been the habit of systematists to refer them to many other genera, the characters of which are with difficulty found. Thus in Europe alone three other species allied to Crcx pratensis occur more or less abundantly ; but one of them, the Spotted Rail or Crake, has been made the type of a so- called genus Porzana, and the other two, little birds not much bigger than Larks, are considered to form a genus Zapornia. The first of these, which used not to be uncommon in the eastern part of England, has a very near representative in the Carolina Rail or Sora, Crex Carolina, of North America, often there miscalled the Ortolan, just as its European analogue, C. porzana, is in England often termed the Dotterel. But, passing over these as well as some belonging to genera that can be much better defined, and other still more interesting forms of the Family, as Aphanapteryx (BIRDS, vol. iii. p. 733), COOT (vol. vi. p. 341), MOOK-HEN (vol. xvi. p. 808), and OCYDROME (vol. xvii. p. 722), a few words must be said of the more distant group formed by the South-American Heliornis, and the African and Indian Podica, comprising four or five species, to which the name "Finfoots" has been applied from the lobes or flaps of skin that fringe their toes. Though for a long while placed among the Podidpedidse, (GREBE, vol. xi. p. 79), their osteology no less than their habits appear to indicate their alliance with the Rails, if they be not members of the Family JKallidas ; but they seem to shew the extreme modification of that type in adaptation to aquatic life. Then again the curious genus Mesites of Madagascar, whose systematic place has been so long in doubt, has been referred by Prof. Alph. Milne-Edwards (Ann. Sc. Naturelle, ser. 6, vii. art. 2) to the neighbourhood of the Rails, though offering some points of resemblance to the Herons. On the other hand the Jacanas (vol. xiii. p. 531) or Parridse, which from their long toes were once thought to belong to the Rails, are now generally admitted to be Limicoline, while the genus Aram/us the Courlan or Limpkin of the Southern United States still occupies a very undetermined position. On the whole the RallidsR constitute a group of birds which, particularly as regards their relations to some other remarkable forms, of which the Sun-Bittern, Eurypyga, and Kagu, Rhinoclwtus, may especially be named, well deserve greater attention from the systematist, and any ornitho- logist in want of a subject could hardly find one more likely to reward his labours if he were only to carry them out in a judicious way. Based on the safe ground of anatomy, but due regard being also had to the external characters, habits, and other peculiarities of this multifarious group, a monograph might be produced of sur- passing interest, and one that in its bearings on the doctrine of evolution would be likely to prove a telling record. (A. N. ) E AIL WAYS had their origin in the tramways which were laid more than two hundred years ago in the mineral districts of England for the conveyance of coal to the sea. In those days, before Macadam, roads bearing .a-1 heavy traffic were with difficulty kept in repair. This led ' oa to the plan of laying planks or timbers at the bottom of the ruts as a better contrivance than filling in with stones, and then to laying rails of timber on the level surface. In 1676 tramways consisted of rails of timber laid "from the colliery to the river, exactly straight and parallel, and bulky carts were made with four rollers fitting the rails, whereby the carriage was so easy that one horse would draw down four or five chaldron of coals." The rails originally were formed of scantlings of good sound oak, and were con- nected by sills or cross timbers of the same material pinned together with oak trenails. By and by an additional or wearing rail, which could be easily renewed when worn, was placed above the supporting rail, and it was then possible to cover the cross pieces or sleepers with earth to protect them from the horses' feet. These ways, laid by permis- sion of local proprietors, were called "way-leaves." It became a common practice to nail down bars of wrought iron on the surfaces of the ascending inclines of the road. These bars or rails were about 2 inches wide and half an inch thick, and were fastened to the wood rails by counter- sunk spikes. But the iron bars, not being stiff enough, 1 Formerly it seems to have been a popiilar belief in England that the Land-Rail in autumn transformed itself into a Water-Rail, resuming its own characters in spring. The writer has met with several persons who had serious doubts on the subject ! were considerably bent when the trucks were loaded, and the resistance was reduced but slightly below that of a well-constructed double wooden tramway. 2 Nevertheless, while the regular load of coals for one horse on the common road was but 17 cwt., on the tramway the horse could regularly take a load of 42 cwt. Cast-iron was first tried iron incidentally as a material for rails in 1767 by the Coal- brookdale Iron Company. The iron rails were cast in lengths of 5 feet, 4 inches wide, and 1 inches thick, formed with three holes, through which they were fastened to the oak rails. The tramway was developed into the railway by the em- ployment of cast-iron flange rails (fig. 1) to replace the wooden rails ; the continuous flange or ledge on their inner FIG. 1. The tram-road, 1776-1800. edge kept the wheels on the track. The roads were then called tram-roads, probably as an abbreviation of trammel -roads, the flanges of the rails being in reality trammels to gauge the road and confine the wheels to 2 The earliest system of way on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and other railroads in the United States was a simple reproduction of this compound of wood and iron. As the ends of the bars became loose and turned upwards they were known as " snakes' heads. " Occasion- ally they pierced the floors of the carriages and injured passengers.