244 TOUR IN SU TH ERL AN DSHIRE. 



distance, or whether the danger is imminent and pressing. 

 It is not only by the voice and action of birds of their own 

 kind that flocks of wild fowl guide their actions : the startled 

 movement or cry of a redshank or peewit is sufficient to put 

 on wing a whole flock of geese or ducks instantaneously, and 

 also to tell exactly from what point the danger is to be 

 apprehended. 



CHAPTEE XXIX. 



The Landrail ; Arrival and Habits of Cuckoo Swift Associations con- 

 nected with Birds Enjoyment of Life by Birds Falcons Water-Fowl ; 

 their different modes of Swimming Wild-Fowl shooting Wounded 

 Ducks Retrievers ; care which should be taken of them Plumage of 

 Water- Fowl ; its imperviousness to wet ; the cause and limits of this. 



THE landrail is one of the most numerous and most regular 

 of our birds of passage. For several seasons the 1st of May 

 has been the earliest day on which I have noticed them. At 

 first I hear a single bird or two croaking in some small patch 

 of early wheat or long clover : their numbers then increase 

 rapidly every day. In the early morning I see them along 

 the sides of the paths, and more particularly near grassy 

 ditches. The rapidity with which this bird threads its way 

 through thickly-growing clover is astonishing. With head 

 crouched to the ground it glides, in a horizontal position, 

 almost with the quickness of an arrow, scarcely moving the 

 grass as it passes through it. One moment he is at your 

 feet, and the next he is standing far off, with erect head and 

 neck, and croaking with a voice of brass. By the end of 

 May or the beginning of June every field is full of them ; 

 and the noise they make during the night time, or after a 

 shower of rain, is incessant. By the middle of August they 

 become quiet ; and the corn being high, they are then seldom 

 seen. Before the crops are carried they have almost entirely 

 disappeared, having left the country quietly and unseen. 

 Sometimes during the shooting season a landrail rises in 

 some very unexpected place, and they are then as fat as it is 

 possible for a bird to be. On their first arrival also they are 

 in good condition, till the business of breeding commences, 

 when they become comparatively lean. 



Though the voice of the landrail is per se so peculiarly 

 harsh and grating, there are few birds whose note falls more 

 pleasantly on my ear associated as it is with the glad season 



