KNOT LANDRAIL. 209 



KNOT, KNUTE, or KNOUT. Tringa canutis Le 

 canut. 



A bird which, like the ruffs and reeves, is more 

 easily caught by nets than shot; as the knot, like the 

 others, keeps running under the high reeds, where it 

 cannot well be followed up, and then is apt to spring 

 out of gun-shot. The knots, if they remain in England, 

 when the fens are frozen, will sometimes repair to the 

 coast. There they are much easier of access than either 

 the curlews or gray plovers. 



LANDRAIL, CORNCRAKE, or DAKERHEN. Rallus 

 crex Le rale de genet. 



To find a landrail, always make choice of a clover 

 field; and if that does not offer, try beans, potatoes, 

 or beds of young withey. Landrails are now most 

 plentiful in Ireland. 



To call them in the evening, go behind a hedge near 

 the swaths of corn, with two bones ; one of which must 

 be notched like a saw, the other plain ; and by drawing 

 the one down the serrated part of the other, you will 

 produce a noise, which so far imitates their call, as often 

 to draw them close to your place of concealment. 



There are two sorts of rails, which may be named 

 after speaking of the landrail ; but, from their being 

 water birds, or rather waders, which inhabit only the 

 sedge and places near rivers, they are very widely di- 

 stinguished in natural history. The one is the 



COMMON WATER-RAIL, and the other the 



SPOTTED WATER-RAIL, SPOTTED GALLINULE, or WATER 

 CRAKE. 



P 



