THE LANDRAIL 



Upon its first arrival in this country in April, the 

 landrail is lean and in wretched condition. During 

 the last few weeks of its sojourn, however, the bird, 

 when secured by the September sportsman, will be 

 found to be in excellent condition, plump and well 

 nourished. And, as every partridge-shooter knows, 

 or should know, there are few better tasted or more 

 tender table birds than this timid migrant. The food 

 of the landrail has, no doubt, something to do with 

 its delicate and toothsome flesh. It is not a grain 

 eater, although the seeds of different weeds are at 

 times found among the contents of the stomach. 

 Small shell-snails, slugs, black snails, tiny freshwater 

 molluscs, worms, beetles, and even leaches, seem to 

 form its principal food-supply. The gizzard is thick 

 and muscular, and not only the fragments of snail 

 shells, but often small pieces of grit and gravel are 

 found in the intestines. These latter, and possibly 

 even the crushed snail shells, no doubt, are aids to 

 digestion. 



Although familiar to the partridge-shooter, the land- 

 rail is a most retiring creature, and exposes itself with 

 the greatest unwillingness to the gaze of mankind. If 

 we except the gunner, by whom or by whose dog the 

 bird is absolutely forced to take wing, how few are the 

 people who can say they have ever seen a landrail in 

 the flesh ! The farmer and his men, during the spring 

 and early summer months, and especially during the 

 long days of May and June, are seldom, when they 

 are afield, without the harsh and monotonous refrain 

 from which this rail takes its other familiar name, the 

 corncrake. Yet how many, even among the more 

 observant of country people, can say that they have 

 set eyes on a corncrake during May, June, July, or 

 August? Towards July the landrail begins to cease 



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