96 RALLHLE. 



two sportsmen while partridge-shooting during the third 

 week of September, in the neighbourhood of Battle, only a 

 few miles from the coast in Sussex, killed fifteen couple of 

 Landrails in one day, and seven couple the next day. 



These birds usually leave this country early in October, 

 but one was killed near London in the month of December 

 1834; one near Yarmouth in January 1836: one is 

 recorded to have been killed in Ireland in January 1839. 



The Landrail is common in valleys near rivers in Scot- 

 land, and abundant in Orkney and Shetland. It also 

 visits Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, going as far north 

 as the Faroe Islands and Iceland. It is abundant, as 

 might be expected, over the European Continent ; and Mr. 

 Strickland saw it at Smyrna in winter. Dr. Heineken 

 includes the Landrail among the birds of Madeira ; Mr. 

 Wild mentions having seen it at Algiers, and it visits 

 Malta and Sicily on its way northward in spring. 



The beak is pale brown ; the irides hazel ; over the eye 

 and ear-coverts, and on the cheeks, ash grey ; the head 

 and neck all round, the back, scapulars, and tertials, pale 

 yellowish brown, each feather having an elongated central 

 streak of very dark brown ; tail-coverts and tail-feathers 

 the same ; wings and wing-coverts rich reddish chestnut ; 

 quills brown, tinged with red ; breast, belly, flanks, and 

 under tail-coverts pale buff, barred transversely on the 

 sides and flanks with darker reddish brown ; legs, toes, 

 and claws, pale yellowish brown. The whole length rather 

 less than ten inches. From the carpal joint to the end 

 of the longest feather in the wing, five inches four lines. 

 Females are rather smaller than males, and, as well as 

 young birds of the year, have the ash grey on the sides of 

 the head less distinct and pure, and the chestnut colour of 

 the wing mixed with darker reddish brown. 



