438 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
forms a sort of link between the Waders and the 
Swimming Birds, some of them—the Moorhen, for 
instance—taking to the water as readily, and swim- 
ming and diving as expertly, as any of the true 
Swimmers: the gap which is left is still further 
filled up by the Lobipedide, of which the Bald Coot 
is the sole representative. 
Lanp Ratu, Crex pratensis. The first of the 
family I have to mention, the Land Rail, or “ Corn 
Crake,” as it is frequently called, is a well-known 
summer visitor to this county, generally arriving 
about the end of April,—my earliest note of its 
arrival is the 23rd,—and departing about the middle 
of October; sometimes, however, it remains much 
longer, and may occasionally stay the winter. There 
is a note in the ‘ Zoologist’ for 1867 (Second Series, 
p. 789) of a Land Rail having been shot in the Isle 
of Wight as late as the 3lst of December; and 
Mr. Blake-Knox, in the same volume (p. 678) of the 
‘ Zoologist,’ suggests that these birds occasionally, if 
not always, hybernate in Ireland, as he has fre- 
quently found them in holes in dry ditches during 
the winter, from which they emerge in fine weather 
to seek for food: he also adds that he has picked 
them up dead at sea about the time of the spring 
and autumn migration ; so it would appear tolerably 
certain that although some may remain the winter, 
others—and probably the greater quantity—migrate. 
