AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 317 



But, admitting these facts, it is remarkable that 

 although with good dogs there would be little 

 difficulty in shooting from 12 to 20 Land-Rails in 

 our meadows in a few hours in early May, it is very 

 seldom that our total bag of these birds during the 

 shooting season has reached to the former of these 

 figures. AVe now and then meet with a Land-Rail 

 or two in October, rarely in November, these 

 lingerers being generally found in common turnips, 

 and w^e know of more than one instance in this 

 neighbourhood of the occurrence of this species in 

 December and January, but as a rule we consider 

 that our Land-Rails are gone by the end of September. 

 The nest of this bird consists of a few dry grasses, 

 and with us is generally met with in the meadows in 

 the valley of the Nen. The complement of eggs 

 varies from eight to ten ; these are of a creamy white, 

 blotched and spotted with grey and rust-colour, and are 

 seldom hatched before the middle of July. The young 

 birds on leaving the shell are covered with intensely 

 black down ; we have on several occasions met with 

 Land-Rails unable to fly in the second and third 

 weeks of September. 



Although this species is reported to inhabit most 

 parts of Central Europe during the summer, and is of 

 more or less frequent occurrence during migration in 

 the southern regions of our continent, we never met 

 with it in what can be fairly called abundance during 

 the legitimate shooting season, except in certain 

 localities in Ireland ; the valley of the Shannon is 

 especially famous for the great number of Land-Rails 

 that frequent it. An old friend of oiu's, who was 

 quartered with his regiment many years ago at 

 Athlone, told us that having been induced, by reports 



