390 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 
therefore an unusual quantity have been hatched off 
in this county. Those which still remain with us at 
the close of the harvest, finding no shelter on our bare 
stubbles, frequent for the most part fields of clover seed 
or second crop clover, a preference which proves fatal 
to them in September when, unable to run, they are 
compelled to rise before the dogs and afford an easy 
shot. An abundance, therefore, of such covert in any 
one season, as was particularly the case in 1869, is sure 
to result in many rails being killed, though the birds 
may not really, as is commonly thought, have been 
more numerous than usual. It is probable, however, 
that migrants from more northern localities may visit 
us occasionally on their passage southward.* From my 
own notes on this species, of late years, I find that in 
1854 an unusual number were received by our bird 
stuffers during the month of September, and the same 
in 1857. In the latter year I heard one calling early 
in May, within a mile of this city, at Haton; and in 
September one or two were shot on a farm in that 
parish. During the same month three very fine birds 
were shot at Northrepps, near Cromer; at Surlingham 
Mr. Pratt killed three in one day, all very heavy birds ; 
and on the opposite side of the river Mr. Tuck shot four 
in one day, and five out of six a few days after, one of 
which weighed nearly nine ounces, whilst the others 
averaged eight ounces each.t 
* The Rev. R. Holdsworth informed Mr. Yarrell that he had 
“been at the killing of thirteen couples in one day, in Devonshire, 
in the month of September ;” and the same author states that 
two sportsmen, during the third week in September, near Battle, 
“only a few miles from the coast, in Sussex, killed fifteen couples 
of land rails in one day, and seven couples the next day,” but 
this is termed by Mr. Knox, in his “ Birds of Sussex,” “an unusual 
occurrence.” 
+ Yarrell gives the weight of the land-rail as “about six 
ounces,” but states that he had seen one and heard of another, 
