90 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. vm. 



common species of a district. Personally, I should find 

 it much easier to beheve that the corn-drill was partly 

 responsible, for its effect would be to limit the number 

 of possible breeding-sites ; only it does not appear 

 from the information received that any considerable 

 proportion of Land-Rails now nest, or have ever nested, 

 in corn. If, however, it could be shown that before 

 the drill was used cornfields were the usual nesting- 

 places, I think the evidence would be strongly in 

 favour of this solution. But we should still want 

 to know how it came about that in some districts 

 they managed to adapt themselves to changing circum- 

 stances, and nested in the grass and clover (as. they 

 seem now to do wherever they are common), whilst 

 in other districts they succumbed to the change. As 

 for changes in the type of cultivation, these do not 

 seem to be sufficiently identical over the large area 

 affected to proAade a satisfactory explanation. The 

 machines used in cutting the hay certainly have more 

 to be said for them. If the objection made to the 

 autumn shooting and telegraph wire solutions were 

 raised again here, I think it would be fair to answer that 

 the effect of the machines is much greater and more 

 general, and still more that it affects the species in the 

 most vital way possible by kiUing off an immense 

 proportion of the new stock every year ; it does not 

 kiU chance individuals, some old, some young, but it 

 kills whole famihes of young. Moreover, the machine 

 is, I beheve, used far more in the parts where the 

 Land-Rail has been practically exterminated than in 

 the north and west of our islands. 



In spite of all this I am not quite satisfied. There 

 is evidence provided by various observers which 

 mihtates against even this last theory. One observer, 

 in fact, in the north-west of England records the Land- 

 Rail as increasing, adding significantly that this is 

 verj' difficult to explain, seeing that machines destroy 

 the famihes every year. Possibly the truth is that 



