OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 



391 



snails, some whole, and many ground to pieces through the attri- 

 tion which is occasioned by the muscular force and motion of that 

 intestine. We saw no gravels among the food : perhaps the shell 

 snails might perform the functions of gravels or pebbles, and might 

 grind one another. Land -rails used to abound formerly, I re- 

 member, in the low wet bean-fields of Christian Malford in North 

 Wilts, and in the meadows near Paradise Gardens at Oxford, 

 where I have often heard them cry crex, crex. The bird rnen- 



LAND-RAIL. 



tioned above weighed seven and a half ounces, was fat and tender, 

 and in flavour like the flesh of a woodcock. The liver was very 

 large and delicate. WHITE. 



Land-rails are more plentiful with us than in the neighbourhood 

 of Selborne. I have found four brace in an afternoon, and a friend 

 of mine lately shot nine in two adjoining fields ; but I never saw 

 them in any other season than the autumn. 



That it is a bird of passage there can be little doubt, though 

 Mr. White thinks it poorly qualified for migration, on account of 

 the wings being short, and not placed in the exact centre of gravity ; 

 how that may be I cannot say, but I know that its heavy sluggish 



