LAND-RAIL. 387 



after it had emerged that he discovered that the subject 

 of his observation was a bird and not a quadruped." 



According to Mr. Gould the rich purple colouring of 

 this sandpiper, from which it derives its English appel- 

 lation, is peculiar to the winter season, and our local 

 specimens, therefore, according to age and date of 

 arrival, have all more or less acquired this familiar 

 garb, but in its summer quarters in the Foero Islands, 

 Iceland, Greenland, Norway, and Spitzbergen, it is 

 scarcely recognisable as the same species, when " from 

 the crown of the head to the lower part of the scapu- 

 laries, all the feathers are edged with chesnut and 

 white, while the purple winter colouring of their centres 

 has given place to brownish black." 



Mr. Harting has kindly communicated the following 

 description of the colouring of the soft parts in this 

 species, as observed by him in a freshly killed example, 

 shot on Breydon, October 30th, 1867 : "Iris, very dark 

 brown ; bill, brown anteriorly, yellow at the base ; legs 

 and toes, bright yellow/' a very marked feature. The 

 contents of the stomach were small univalves. 



CREX PRATENSIS, Bechstein. 

 LAND-RAIL. 



As a bird of passage the Land-Kail or Corn-Crake 

 visits us regularly in spring, and many pairs, scattered 

 over the county, remain to breed in the corn-fields or 

 amidst the rank herbage of low meadows, as well as on 

 the "ronds," and marshes bordering upon our rivers and 

 broads.* Towards the end of April, or beginning of May, 



* They do not seera to breed in the "Breck" District, though 

 they occur there in autumn. 



