BIRDS IN THE CALENDAR 
certainty, contrive to miss these lazy, napping 
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 
