390 



BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



therefore an unusual quantity have been hatched off 

 in this county. Those which still remain with us at 

 the close of the harvest, finding no shelter on our bare 

 stubbles, frequent for the most part fields of clover seed 

 or second crop clover, a preference which proves fatal 

 to them in September when, unable to run, they are 

 compelled to rise before the dogs and afford an easy 

 shot. An abundance, therefore, of such covert in any 

 one season, as was particularly the case in 1869, is sure 

 to result in many rails being killed, though the birds 

 may not really, as is commonly thought, have been 

 more numerous than usual. It is probable, however, 

 that migrants from more northern localities may visit 

 us occasionally on their passage southward.* From my 

 own notes on this species, of late years, I find that in 

 1854 an unusual number were received by our bird 

 staffers during the month of September, and the same 

 in 1857. In the latter year I heard one calling early 

 in May, within a mile of this city, at Eaton ; and in 

 September one or two were shot on a farm in that 

 parish. During the same month three very fine birds 

 were shot at Northrepps, near Cromer; at Surlingham 

 Mr. Pratt killed three in one day, all very heavy birds ; 

 and on the opposite side of the river Mr. Tuck shot four 

 in one day, and five out of six a few days after, one of 

 which weighed nearly nine ounces, whilst the others 

 averaged eight ounces each.f 



* The Kev. E. Holdsworth informed Mr. Yarrell that he had 

 " been at the killing of thirteen couples in one day, in Devonshire, 

 in the month of September;" and the same author states that 

 two sportsmen, during the third week in September, near Battle, 

 " only a few miles from the coast, in Sussex, killed fifteen couples 

 of land rails in one day, and seven couples the next day," but 

 this is termed by Mr. Knox, in his " Birds of Sussex," " an unusual 

 occurrence." 



f Yarrell gives the weight of the land-rail as "about six 

 ounces," but states that he had seen one and heard of another, 



