314 OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 



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

 a bird so rare in this district that we seldom 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 



round to pieces, through the attrition which is occasioned 

 y 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 

 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 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 neigh- 

 bourhood of Selborne. I have found four brace in an after- 

 noon, 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, 



the plumage of the cock, is not confined to the pheasant alone ; it takes place 

 also with the pea-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 Ornithological Dictionary, Art. Pheasant. 

 REV. J. MITFORD. 



* The land-rail or corn-crake is a bird of passage, and a summer visitor to 

 this country. When in the neighbourhood of Swansea some years ago, I was 

 assured by a gentleman residing near that place, that he discovered in a field 



