BIRDS IN THE CALENDAR 



certainty, contrive to miss these lazy, flapping 

 fowl when walking them up. Dispassionately 

 considered, the landrail should be a bird that 

 a man could scarcely miss on the first occasion 

 of his handling a gun ; in cold fact, it often 

 survives two barrels apparently untouched. 

 This immunity it owes in all probability to 

 its slow and heavy flight, since those whose 

 eyes are accustomed to the rapid movement 

 of partridges are apt to misjudge the allow- 

 ance necessary for such a laggard and to fire 

 in front of it. It is difficult to realise that, 

 whereas the strong-winged partridge is a 

 stay-at-home, the deliberate landrail has 

 come to us from Africa and will, if spared by 

 the guns, return there. 



Perhaps the most curious and interesting 

 habit recorded of the landrail is that of 

 feigning death when suddenly discovered, a 

 method of self-defence which it shares with 

 opossums, spiders, and in fact other animals 

 of almost every class. It will, if suddenly 

 surprised by a dog, lie perfectly still and 

 betray no sign of life. There is, however, at 

 least one authentic case of a landrail actually 

 dying of fright when suddenly seized, and it 

 104 



