148 WILD-FOWL AND SEA-FOWL OF GREAT BRITAIN 



close to the fringe of these moors, the Land-rail gets 

 dropped when he rises at times in the same spots 

 as the so-called Moor Partridges. Sometimes too 

 in the autumn, just before he flights it again, he 

 gets his head into a slight horse-hair noose that was 

 not intended for him. 



That some of the Land-rail species have been 

 found in winter is not at all an extraordinary thing, 

 as a few birds of migratory nature generally remain 

 behind, for some reason or other, to get through 

 the winter as best they can. If the winter were a 

 very severe one, I should look for the Land-rail and 

 the Water-rail in places where ordinary searchers, 

 acquainted with only the usual habits of these birds, 

 would never dream of looking for them. Where food 

 and shelter can be found in severe weather, there 

 will the Rails go at night to find such necessaries, 

 knowing that if they do not get them they will die. 

 All their shyness is for a time thrown to the winds. 



The Land-rail I have never seen pulled from 

 its warm hiding-place, although one or two such 

 instances have occurred ; but the Water-rail I have. 

 It takes a lot to drive him to such extremities, but 

 sometimes there is no help for it. In cases where 

 Land-rails have been met with in winter-time, the 

 seasons have been mild ones. Whether in some 

 instances the Water-rail had been mistaken for the 

 Land-rail I am not able to say ; but they have been 

 reported to me so very emphatically by those who 

 knew the two birds perfectly well, that, to my mind, 

 there is not the least doubt of their identity. I have 



