LAND-RAIL. 387 
after it had emerged that he discovered that the subject 
of his observation was a bird and not a quadruped.” 
According to Mr. Gould the rich purple colouring of 
this sandpiper, from which it derives its English appel- 
lation, is peculiar to the winter season, and our local 
specimens, therefore, according to age and date of 
arrival, have all more or less acquired this familiar 
garb, but in its summer quarters in the Foeero Islands, 
Iceland, Greenland, Norway, and Spitzbergen, it is 
scarcely recognisable as the same species, when “ from 
the crown of the head to the lower part of the scapu- 
laries, all the feathers are edged with chesnut and 
white, while the purple winter colouring of their centres 
has given place to brownish black.” 
Mr. Harting has kindly communicated the following 
description of the colouring of the soft parts in this 
species, as observed by him in a freshly killed example, 
shot on Breydon, October 30th, 1867 :—“ Tris, very dark 
brown ; bill, brown anteriorly, yellow at the base; legs 
and toes, bright yellow,” a very marked feature. The 
contents of the stomach were small univalves. 
CREX PRATENSIS, Bechstein. 
LAND-RAIL. 
As a bird of passage the Land-Rail or Corn-Crake 
visits us regularly in spring, and many pairs, scattered 
over the county, remain to breed in the corn-fields or 
amidst the rank herbage of low meadows, as well as on 
the “ronds,” and marshes bordering upon our rivers and. 
broads.* Towards the end of April, or beginning of May, 
* They do not seem to breed in the “ Breck” District, though 
they occur there in autumn. 
3D3 
