RALLUS, the rail, in natural history, a genus of birds of the order Grallm. Ge neric character : bill slender, slightly compressed, and incurvated ; nostrils small ; tong-tie rough at the end ; body much compressed ; tail very short. There are twenty-two species, of which we shall notice the following : R. aquaticus, or the water-rail, is fre quently to be seen in England, and is about four ounces and a half in weight. It resides in moist situations, abounding in sedges and reeds, where it finds cover and security. It is timid and solitary, flies with considerable awkwardness, with its legs hanging down, and shows great re luctance, even when much pressed by the sportsman and his dogs, to take wing. It runs with wonderful rapidity, and sel dom rises in the air till it has fatigued both itself and its pursuers, by an ex hausting progress on its feet. It swims with tolerable ease, and where there are any weeds upon the water, will run over them with great lightness. It is migra. tory, and winters in Africa. Its flesh is good. Sec Ayes, Plate XIII. fig. 1.
R. porzana, or the water crake or skitty. This also is fond of low and marshy grounds, in which are covers of reeds and rushes, and in which it shelters itself in security. It is extremely timid
and sequestered, eluding observation by its perpetual vigilance and lurking habits. Its nest is formed with singular care, of matted rushes, and materials which will float on the water, on which it remains tied, by some filaments, to the stalks of reeds, by which it is prevented from be ing carried away by the tide or current This bird is in great esteem for the table. Inhabits Europe.
RAM, in zoology, the male of the sheep kind. See Ovis.
RAM, battering, in antiquity, a military engine used to batter and beat down the walls of places besieged. The battering ram was of two sorts, the one rude and plain, the other compound. The former seems to have been no more than a great beam which the soldiers bore on their arms and shoulders, and with one end of it by main force assailed the wall. The compound ram is thus described by Jo etephus : it is a vast beam, like the mast of a ship strengthened at one end with a i bead of iron, something resembling that of a ram, whence it took its name.