220 FACULTIES OF BIRDS. 



the legs indeed being so placed as to render it diffi- 

 cult to use them in walking. When one, which 

 Colonel Montagu had, quitted the water, it shoved its 

 body along upon the ground like a seal, by jerks, 

 rubbing the breast against the ground, and returned 

 again to the water in a similar manner *. 



The coot (Fulica atra), like the divers, has an 

 aversion to take wing, and can seldom be sprung in 

 its retreat at low water ; yet though it walks rather 

 awkwardly, it contrives to skulk through the grass 

 and reeds with considerable quickness, the compressed 

 form of its body being peculiarly fitted for this pur- 

 pose ; and we have often marked its progress by the 

 top of the herbage, on the edge of a lake, moving as 

 if it had been swept by a narrow current of wind f. 

 The same aversion to run rather than to take wing 

 may also be remarked in the rails (RallidfB, LEACH), 

 some of which are land birds, and amongst these we 

 may mention the land-rail or corn-crake (Ortygometra 

 crex, FLEMING), a bird that has been said never to 

 take the water, and keeps regularly upon the ground, 

 taking flight but rarely, and never except when com- 

 pelled thereto. Its leg and shank (tarsus) are both 

 of considerable length a circumstance that enables 

 it, as Dr. Drummond remarks, to put one foot far for- 

 ward while the other is far backward, whence it can 

 take long strides, and these being repeated in quick 

 succession, the speed of the bird is very great, which 

 renders it very often able to elude both sportsmen 

 and dogs, without having recourse to its wings {. 



4 ' We may know," says M. Montbeillard, " when a 

 dog lights on the scent of the corn-crake from his keen 

 search, his number of false tracks, and the obstinacy 

 with which the bird persists in keeping the ground, 

 insomuch that it may be sometimes caught by the 



* Ornith, Diet. p. 309. f J. R. 



J Letters, p. 219. 



