388 OBSER VA TIONS ON BIRDS. 



Land-rails are more plentiful with us than in the neighbourhood 

 of Selborne. I have found four brace in an afternoon, and a friend 

 of mine lately shot nine in two adjoining fields ; but I never saw 

 them in any other season than the autumn. 



That it is a bird of passage there can be little doubt, though Mr. 

 White thinks it poorly qualified for migration, on account of the 

 wings being short, and not placed in the exact centre of gravity ; 

 how that may be I cannot say, but I know that its heavy sluggish 

 flight is not owing to its inability of flying faster, for I have seen it 

 fly very swiftly, although in general its actions are sluggish. Its 

 unwillingness to rise proceeds, I imagine, from its sluggish dis- 

 position, and its great timidity, for it will sometimes squat so close 

 to the ground as to suffer itself to be taken up by the hand, rather 

 than rise ; and yet it will at times run very fast. 



What Mr. White remarks respecting the small shell snails found 

 in its gizzard, confirms my opinion, that it frequents corn-fields, seed 

 clover, and brakes or fern, more for the sake of snails, slugs, and 

 other insects which abound in such places, than for the grain or 

 seeds ; and that it is entirely an insectivorous bird. MARKWICK. 



FOOD OF THE RING-DOVE. 



One of my neighbours shot a ring-dove on an evening as it was 

 returning from feed and going to roost. When his wife had picked 

 and drawn it, she found its craw stuffed with the most nice and 

 tender tops of turnips. These she washed and boiled, and so 

 sat down to a a choice and delicate plate of greens, culled and 

 provided in this extraordinary manner. 



Hence we may see that graminivorous birds, when grain fails, 

 can subsist on the leaves of vegetables. There is reason to suppose 

 that they would not long be healthy without ; for turkeys, though 

 corn fed, delight in a variety of plants, such as cabbage, lettuce, 

 endive, c., and poultry pick much grass ; while geese live for 

 months together on commons by grazing alone. 



" Nought is useless made ; 



On the barren heath 



The shepherd tends his flock that daily crop 

 Their verdant dinner from the mossy turf 

 Sufficient: after them the cackling goose, 

 Close-grazier, finds wherewith to ease her want." 



Pmurs's Cyder. 



WHITE. 



