ON BIRDS. 345 



LAND-RAIL. A man brought me a land-rail, or 

 daker-hen, a bird so rare in this district that we sel- 

 dom see more than one or two in a season, and these 

 only in autumn. This is deemed a bird of passage 

 by all the writers : yet, from its formation, seems to 

 be poorly qualified for migration ; for its wings are 

 short, and placed so forward, and out of the centre of 

 gravity, that it flies in a very heavy and embarrassed 

 manner, with its legs hanging down ; and can hardly 

 be sprung a second time, as it runs very fast, and 

 seems to depend more on the swiftness of its feet than 

 on its flying. 



When we came to draw it, we found the entrails 

 so soft and tender, that in appearance they might 

 have been dressed like the ropes of a woodcock. The 

 craw, or crop, was small and lank, containing a 

 mucus ; the gizzard thick and strong, and filled with 

 small shell snails, some whole, and many ground to 

 pieces through the attrition 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 peb- 

 bles, and might grind one another. Land-rails used 

 to abound formerly, I remember, 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 mentioned above weighed 7-J oz. 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 



hen, as may be seen in the specimen belonging to Lady Tynte, 

 which was in the Leverian Museum. After many broods, this 

 hen took much of the plumage of the cock, and also the fine 

 train belonging to that bird. See also MONTAGU'S Ornitholog. 

 Diet. Art. Pheasant. MITFORD. 



