172 REMINISCENCES OF A SPORTSMAN. 



coloured streaks. The tail is short, and of a deep bay ; 

 the legs are of the same colour as the bill. 



It does not, like the waterrail, frequent watery- 

 places, but is always found among corn, grass, broom 

 and furze. The landi-ail migrates to the continent 

 before winter, but some have been shot occasionally 

 in December, which were probably wounded birds, unable 

 to take their departure with the rest. As there have 

 been some doubts about the landrail being able to cross 

 the channel, yet considering its long muscular wings one 

 may come to the conclusion that it cannot have more 

 difficulty in crossing the ocean than a variety of small 

 short winged birds. An author calls this bird the 

 farmer's friend, as, on having examined his stomach, he 

 found it contained a quantity of beetles, flies, larvse, 

 &c. This bird when fat, in the autumn, is justly es- 

 teemed one of the most delicate and delicious for the 

 table, and should be roasted with much care, enveloped 

 in vine leaves. 



Whenever I shot a fat landrail, I ^^Tapped it up in 

 paper carefully, and put it in my pocket, as it was far 

 too delicate a bird to be mixed with others in the game 

 bag. The corncrake is the harbinger of summer, and 

 begins to be heard about the middle of May, and con- 

 tinues its note during the breeding season. In meadows, 

 from the time the grass is grown until mown, there 

 issues from the thickest part of the herbage a sound 

 like the word " cuck, cuck," and which is a noise re- 

 sembling that made by scraping the teeth of a large 

 comb under the fingers. WTien I was staying for a few 



days in Shropshire with Sir William C , Bart., in 



September 1857, landrails were so abundant in his 

 neighbourhood, that we had them every day at dinner. 



