338 WHITE 



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 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 per- 

 form the functions of gravels or pebbles, and might grind 

 one another. Landrails used to abound formerly, I remem- 

 ber, 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 seven and a half ounces, was fat 

 and tender, and in flavor like the flesh of a woodcock. The 

 liver was very large and delicate. WHITE. 



Landrails are more plentiful with us than in the neighbor- 

 hood 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 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. 



