294 OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 



When we came to draw it, we found the entrails so soft 

 and tender, that in appearance, they might have been dressed 

 like the ropes of a woodcock. The craw, or crop, was small 

 and lank, containing a mucus ; the gizzard thick and strong, 

 and filled with small shell snails, some whole, and many ground 

 to pieces through the attrition which is occasioned by the 

 muscular force and motion of that intestine. We saw no gravels 

 among the food ; perhaps the shell snails might perform the 

 functions of gravels or pebbles, and might grind one another. 

 Land-rails used to abound formerly, I remember, in the low, 

 wet, bean fields of Christian Malford, in North Wilts, and in 

 the meadows near Paradise Gardens, at Oxford, where I have 

 often heard them cry, crex, crex. The bird mentioned above 

 weighed seven ounces and a half, was fat and tender, and in 

 flavour like the flesh of a woodcock. The liver was very 

 large and delicate.* 



FOOD FOR THE RING-DOVE. One of my neighbours shot 

 a ring-dove on an evening as it was returning from feed and 

 going to roost. When his wife had picked and drawn it, she 

 found its craw stuffed with the most nice and tender tops of 

 turnips. These she washed and boiled, and so sat down to a 

 choice and delicate plate of greens, culled and provided in 

 this extraordinary manner. 



Hence we may see that graminivorous birds, when grain 

 fails, can subsist on the leaves of vegetables. There is reason 

 to suppose that they would not long be healthy without ; for 



* Land-rails are more plentiful with us than in the neighbourhood of 

 Selborne. I have found four brace in an afternoon, and a friend of mine 

 lately shot nine in two adjoining fields ; but I never saw them in any 

 other season than the autumn. 



That it is a bird of passage, there can be little doubt, though Mr White 

 thinks it poorly qualified for migration, on account of the wings being 

 short, and not placed in the exact centre of gravity : how that may be 

 I cannot say, but I know that its heavy sluggish flight is not owing to 

 its inability of flying faster, for I have seen it fly very swiftly; although in 

 general its actions are sluggish. Its unwillingness to rise proceeds, I 

 imagine, from its sluggish disposition, and its great timidity ; for it will 

 sometimes squat so close to the ground, as to suffer itself to be taken up 

 by the hand, rather than rise ; and yet it will at times run very fast. 



What Mr White remarks respecting the small shell snails found in its 

 gizzard, confirms my opinion, that it frequents corn fields, seed clover, 

 and brakes or fern, more for the sake of snails, slugs, and other insects 

 which abound in such places, than for the grain or seeds, and that it is 

 entirely an insectivorous bird. MARKWTCK. 



