1G5 



THE LAND-RAIL. 



Crex pratensis Bechst. 



From the records of this species it is clear that the Land- 

 Rail was fairly evenly distributed over England and Wales 

 to the west of 1° 30' W. longitude, but was more numerous 

 in Wales and the North than in the southern counties. Jn 

 the counties between 1° 30' W. and the meridian of Grreen- 

 wich it was apparently very sparsely distributed, wdiile in 

 the eastern and south-eastern seaboard counties, it was quite 

 a rare bird. 



No doubt it arrived entirely on the western half of the 

 south coast, and the few birds reported from the eastern 

 counties were doubtless stragglers from the west. 



The earliest record was, curiously enoughj from Essex on 

 April the 8th, but as this was the only record from that 

 county during the whole season, the bird could hardly have 

 been anything but an accidental straggler. A few birds 

 arrived in the west about the end of the first week in April, 

 and these were followed by a small immigration into Devon 

 and Hampshire on the 17th and 18th. These birds travelled 

 due north, and keeping to the west of 1° 30' W. longitude, 

 distributed themselves over the counties along; the Welsh 

 border, reaching Yorkshire and Durham on the 29tli and 

 30th, and Dumfries on the 29th. 



A second immigration seems to have arrived in the west 

 about the 1st of May and to have passed north into Wales 

 and thence to the Isle of Man. 



A third immigration apparently landed in the west from 

 Cornwallto Hampshire on May the 7th and 8th, and passing 



