WADING BIRDS. 199 



" Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed 

 times; and the turtle, and the crane, and the swallow 

 observe the time of their coming ; but my people know 

 not the judgment of the Lord." 



I have never succeeded in causing the landrail to take 

 wing except with a dog, and even then its flight is 

 always brief, as it takes an early opportunity of dropping 

 to the ground and regaining its covert. It flies rather 

 slowly, with its legs hanging down, and there is such an 

 air of effort about its movements on the wing, that I 

 have wondered how its migrations are performed. 



On the ground, however, all this is reversed. It is 

 marvellous to see the ease and rapidity with which it 

 threads its way through the corn or grass ; and even 

 when the latter is short, as it sometimes is on the land- 

 rail's first arrival, the bird's course is so smooth and well 

 concealed that only now and then you perceive any 

 motion of the grass to indicate its whereabouts. 



Its form and plumage are admirably adapted to its 

 habits and requirements ; none of its feathers project 

 beyond the graceful outline of its body, and they are 

 particularly close and firm in texture. When in motion 

 the head and neck are carried in a horizontal line with 

 the body, the whole constituting a most efficient wedge, 

 enabling the bird to thread its way through the densest 

 foliage with the greatest facility. 



Its ventriloquial powers are well known to every 

 observer. Now its harsh " crake, crake," seems within 

 a few yards, and the next moment it sounds as if it were 

 half across the field, and this apparent variation in dis- 

 tance is so well simulated, that in a consecutive repeti- 

 tion of its call for ten or twelve times, a few notes will 

 sound as if uttered almost at your feet, and the next two or 



