38 VARIETIES OF SHOOTING. 



on the first occasion. The flesh is considered extremely deli- 

 cate, but the body being small, weighing only six ounces, 

 there is not much of it ; occasionally a landrail is met with 

 of seven or eight ounces weight. This bird is met with in 

 Scotland, but chiefly in the low lands near the rivers, and 

 consequently it does not often come in the way of the grouse 

 shooter. 



The SPOTTED CRAKE and LITTLE CRAKE are also occa- 

 sionally seen by the partridge shooter, but they are so rare 

 as hardly to require a minute description. 



The GREAT PLOVER, NORFOLK PLOVER, or STONE 

 CURLEW (CEdicnemus orepitans) is a summer visitant only, 

 arriving in April and leaving in September or October. It, 

 like all birds that migrate to us from the south, is more 

 common on the south-eastern coast than elsewhere, and is so 

 frequently found in Norfolk, that it has derived one of its 

 familiar names from that county. It is also met with in 

 Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Sussex, Essex, Kent, and Hamp- 

 shire ; but not so often as in the first-named county, whose 

 sandy plains are exactly suited to its habits. Its generic 

 characters may be thus summed up : Beak stout, strong, and 

 straight, a little depressed at the base ; ridge of the upper 

 mandible elevated ; under mandible with an angle at the 

 point of junction ; nostrils placed in the middle of the beak, 

 extending as far forward as the horny portion, open in front ; 

 legs long and slender, with three toes only, united by a mem- 

 brane as far as the second joint; wings of moderate length, 

 second quill feather the longest. In the adult bird the beak 

 is black at the point with a yellowish-green base ; iris golden 

 yellow; top of the head and back of the neck pale wood 

 brown, each feather having a streak of black in the centre ; 

 a light-coloured streak under the eye, extending to the ear 

 coverts, having a darker streak of brown under it, which 

 extends beyond the ear coverts ; upper parts pale brown, 

 each feather having a dark brownish-black streak; wing 

 primaries almost black, the first and second with a white 

 patch towards the end; the tail feathers with the basal 

 halves mottled with two shades of brown, the next portion 

 white, the ends black ; outside tail feathers shorter than those 

 in the middle ; chin and throat white ; neck and breast pale 





