732 Retrospective Criticism, 



carefully examined the bag or gizzard of the last- mentioned 

 bird*, and admit that it may, perhaps, without impropriety, be 

 called " strong and muscular : " but still it is very unlike the 

 gizzard of poultry, the habits of the bird not requiring so 

 powerful an engine ; and by comparing the gizzard of either 

 bird to that of poultry, the author of The British Naturalist 

 is surely likely to mislead his readers. I cannot conclude this 

 notice without expressing my thanks to Mr. Dovaston for 

 the handsome manner in which he has spoken of the review 

 o^ the The British Naturalist, Yours. — A, R, Y. Aprils. 

 1832. 



Does theLandrail or Corner alee {Ortygometr a CrSx Flem. ) breed 

 in the South of England P — It breeds here; but, contrary to what 

 one would suppose, its numbers are fewer afterwards ; and I 

 suppose from this that there is a migration farther south. The 

 last I heard call was towards the latter end of July. The 

 partial migration of birds is a subject insufficiently known ; and 

 our knowledge of it can be most, and perhaps only, promoted 

 by publishing the dates of arrival and departure, in various 

 places, of the birds which are known to remain in some one 

 or other part of the country the entire year. — T. K, Killaloe, 

 Sept, 21. 1832. 



Food of the Water Rail {Uallus aquaticus Linn.), (p. 68. 299.) 

 — I have found only vegetable substances in the stomach of 

 this bird. I have a preserved stomach and oesophagus of one 

 of these little birds, containing nine large grey peas and small 

 horse beans. It appears that the bird swallowed them dry, 

 and that they afterwards swelled with the moisture of the sto- 

 mach, and so distended the stomach and the oesophagus as to 

 deprive the former of the power of digestion, and occasion 

 tlie death of the bird. — Thomas Allis, Yarh, Sth of the 5th 

 month {May), 1832. 



A bad figure of the water rail is given Vol. I. p. 289. 

 fig. 154*., and the faults of the figure are pointed out, Vol. II. 

 p. 302. The instance of the white water rail captured in 

 Berkshire, and described in p. 384. of the present Volume, 

 are additional facts in the water rail's history. — J, D, 

 ^<-'Is the Water Rail {Rdllus aquaticus Linn.) migratory, or not ? 

 —^In reply to the query of E. P. T. (p. 397.), I can inform him, 

 that, so far as relates to this neighbourhood, it is migratory. 

 The bird arrives here about the middle of November, and 

 juay be found in most of our small streams. I have never 

 s^ea it kter than the end of February or beginning of Mardi, 



* An irregular piece of grit or stone, larger than the seed of the sweet 

 pea, now lies before me, which I took from the bag of a woodcock. 



