432 ON VARIOUS PARTS 



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 mus- 

 cular 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 ISTorth Wilts, and in 

 the meadows near Paradise Gardens at Oxford, where I have 

 often heard them cry crex, crex. The bird mentioned above 

 weighed 7J 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, 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 flight is not owing to its inability of flying 

 faster, for I have seen it fly very swiftly, although in general 

 its actions are sluggish. Its unwillingness to rise proceeds, I 

 imagine, from its sluggish disposition, and its great timidity, 

 for it will sometimes squat so close to the ground as to suffer 

 itself to be taken up by the hand, rather than rise ; and yet it 

 will at times run very fast. 



What Mr. White remarks respecting the small shell snails 

 found in its gizzard, confirms my opinion, that it frequents 

 corn-fields, seed clover, and brakes or fern, more for the sake 

 of snails, slugs, and other insects which abound in such places, 

 than for the grain or seeds ; and that it is entirely an insecti- 

 vorous bird. MAKKWICK. 



