328 OBSERVATIONS ON 



LAND-RAIL, 



A MAN brought me a land-rail or daker-hen, a bird so 

 rare in this district that we seldom see more than one or 

 two in a season, and those only in autumn. 1 This is deemed 

 a bird of passage by all the writers ; yet from its formation 

 seems to be poorly qualified for migration; for its wings are 

 short, and placed so forward, and out of the centre of gra- 

 vity, that it flies in a very heavy and embarrassed manner, 

 with its legs hanging down ; and can hardly be sprung a 

 second time, as it runs very fast, and seems to depend more 

 on the swiftness of its feet than on its flying. 



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 



tions to take of White's description, except that the black was much 

 browner than that of a partridge instead of somewhat like, which is not 

 in fact contradictory. The whole of Lord Egremont's collection was after- 

 wards destroyed by maggots, and the specimen has long ceased to exist. 

 As I understand it has been surmised that the hybrid bird described by 

 White might have been a young black cock in moult, I wish to state, in 

 the most positive manner, that I am certain it was not. I had, at the 

 period when I examined it, been in the annual habit of shooting young 

 black game, and was perfectly well acquainted with all their variations 

 of plumage ; and had also been accustomed to see them reared in con- 

 finement. It is a point on which I could not be deceived. The bird 

 had neither the legs and feet, nor the plumage, of a black cock in any 

 stage of its growth." ED. 



1 The scarcity of the land-rail in the neighbourhood of Selborne in 

 Gilbert White's day is not a little remarkable. Considering that the 

 bird migrates to this country in spring from the south of Europe, one 

 would suppose that in Hants and Sussex of all counties it would be 

 found in tolerable plenty. It is by no means scarce there at the present 

 day. In September, 1863, the writer, while shooting in company with 

 a friend within ten miles of Selborne, killed three brace of land-rails in 

 one day. This was on the 4th September, and the birds were all shot 

 out of clover. If the species were not really overlooked by Gilbert 

 White, owing to its skulking habits, the increase in its numbers at the 

 present day in the district of which he wrote must be attributed to the 

 alteration which has taken place in the mode of cultivating the surround- 

 ing farms, and the greater attraction which is now afforded to the bird 

 in the way of food and shelter. ED. 



