VOL. vni.] LAND-RAIL INQUIRY REPORT. 85 



Thames valley the Land-Rail was common twenty- 

 years ago. 



In 1889, according to the Birds of Oxfordshire, the 

 species was locally abundant. In south Oxford it 

 appears to have been very common in the 'seventies, 

 and possibly no less abundant in the north, but in 

 1903 it had become quite rare, as recorded in the 

 Zoologist; by 1911, when correspondence on the subject 

 took place, no further change had been noted : a single 

 pair was still observed from time to time, but no 

 more. In Buckinghamshire there are still a few ; 

 ten years ago they were more common. In 1912 

 there appear to have been more than usual. 



An exceptionally large number of Land-Rail 

 observers seems to inhabit Hertfordshire, and 

 fortunately their evidence is practically unanimous. 

 For twenty years at least a decrease has taken place, 

 but a few pairs still remain in various districts, and 

 most of these return year after year ; however, some 

 fluctuations have been noticed in the last three or four 

 years. The evidence from Bedfordshire, though 

 much less, suggests that the same remarks might be 

 appMed to that county. 



In Middlesex occasional pairs have been noticed 

 in the last ten years, but apparently only for single 

 years. This seems to be the condition of things also 

 in Surrey, Sussex, and Kent. North of the Surrey 

 downs, about the Eden vaUey and locally in west Sussex, 

 very small numbers still occur regularly, but in every 

 other part the notes are of single pairs breeding for 

 one year and then disappearing again, or else of a 

 complete absence of the species, except on the autumn 

 migration. In some districts the Land-Rail was 

 formerly quite common, and in almost aU it appears 

 to have been known as a regular breeding-bird 

 forty to twenty years ago, except, perhaps, in east 

 Kent (where no memory recalls it as ever common), 

 but most observers record its disappearance fifteen 



