138 RALLID^E. 



during the last ten days of April ; but in Yorkshire, and 

 still further north, it is seldom observed or heard till the 

 first or second week in May. In the Shetland Islands it 

 only makes its appearance towards the end of that month, 

 the herbage even then being too scanty to afford the 

 requisite concealment. Generally distributed throughout 

 the mainland of Scotland, it also goes to the most outlying 

 of the Hebrides : even to the remote St. Kilda. In Ireland, 

 where a large portion of the country is under pasture, it is 

 fairly abundant. The rich meadows upon the banks of the 

 Trent below Newark : the Yale of Purbeck : the neighbour- 

 hood of Battle in Sussex : and the Island of Anglesey, have 

 each been noted for the abundance of this species ; and in 

 Devonshire, the Rev. Robert Holdsworth has stated that he 

 was present at the killing of as many as thirteen couple in 

 a single day in September, at which season Land Rails con- 

 gregate before leaving the country. In the neighbourhood 

 of Selborne, in Gilbert White's time, it was so rare that 

 seldom more than one or two were seen in a season, and 

 then only ill autumn, but owing probably to the clearing 

 of the forest, and the increase of pasture land, this is no 

 longer the case, for Mr. J. E. Harting states, in an edi- 

 torial note to his edition of 'White's History of Selborne' 

 (p. 828), that he has killed three brace in a September day. 

 By the beginning of October the majority have taken their 

 departure, but numerous instances are on record of occur- 

 rences both in England and Ireland in November and 

 December, and sometimes even in January and February. 

 Sir R. Payne-Gall wey states (' The Fowler in Ireland,' 

 p. 251) that he has twice found Land Rails, to all appear- 

 ance asleep, in the latter month, ensconced in the centre of 

 loose stone walls close to the ground ; and Mr. Reeves, of 

 Capard, Queen's Co., has stated that he took three in a 

 semi-comatose state out of a rabbit-hole on 7th February, 

 1882, and others in the same manner in former years. 

 Land Rails have also been shot in mistake for Woodcocks 

 in winter, especially on the promontories of the west coast 

 of Ireland. 



