VOL. vn.] THE CASE OF THE LAND-RAIL. 5 



It would seem as though the distribution of the species 

 was gradually shifting towards the north-west and thereby 

 becoming sporadic along its south-eastern margin. This 

 last of course is only an idea suggested by the perusal 

 of successive reports, but whether it be anything Uke 

 the truth or not, it seems manifest that the aheady 

 ascertained facts are sufficient to warrant a searching 

 inquiry. 



The subject is an important and interesting one from 

 a distributional, if not from an economic point of 

 view, and it would be especially interesting to determine 

 the cause or causes of the decrease, and whether it is 

 associated generally or locally in these islands with any- 

 thing like a compensatory increase. Before this can be 

 attempted a preliminary inquiry must necessarily be 

 made in order to coUect facts from as wide an area and in 

 as great detail within that area as is possible, and in the 

 meantime to coUect aU the hitherto published statements 

 bearing on the subject. Then by coUatiag and working 

 out the results a solid basis of fact wiU be arrived at 

 from which a start may be made to ascertain the causes. 



When the inquiry now in progress was being formu- 

 lated, it was recognized that the Land-Rail formed 

 a special case by itself, for the following reasons : 

 (1) a decrease in the abstract was already proved for a 

 considerable area ; (2) the decrease had been going on 

 for a long time ; (3) many of the details were already 

 known to many people, and they only wanted systema- 

 tically collecting and collating. Observations^ during the 

 coming season were thus of minor importance in this 

 species as compared with those enumerated in the 

 schedule. It was clear therefore that the same form 

 would hardly fit the two cases, and that of the Land- 

 Rail merited a special inquiry of its own. 



During 1911 a certain amount of correspondence on 

 this subject took place in the pages of the Zoologist. 

 The subject was started by Mr. Steele Elliott, but less 

 than a dozen people were induced by his inquiries to 



