RALLID-E. 281 



( YaiTelFs B. Birds, 2n(l ed. iii, p. 95). The llcv. R. A. Julian relates that ia 

 the month of (Jctober Land-Bails were found congregated by a farmer, re- 

 siding near Modbury, in one of his potato-fields, not far from the fcea-coast. 

 He saw upwards of forty, and killed seventeen, and on going to tr}- for them 

 again the following day, he found they had all disappeared ('Naturalist,' 

 l.^ol, p. >S7). The late Mr. John Elliot, of Kingsbridge, states, in his 

 annotated copy of Yarrell's ' British Birds,' that forty-two brace were 

 shot by two guns in one morning, September 23rd, ISfJi, in the parish of 

 Malborough. 



This common and well-known bird varies considerably in numbers in 

 the "West (Vjuutry ; sometimes being very plentiful, so that its harsh 

 '• crake, crake " may be heard in almost every meadow and cornfield ; 

 while in other seasons it is comparatively scarce, and the summer may 

 pass away with few being heard, and with only a chance one being met 

 with in the clover-buds in September. In Xorth Devon, especially in the 

 moor}- hill farms, the Land-Bail is generally plentiful, and in such places 

 three or four couple are jjicked up by the Partridge-shooter in the course 

 of a day's tramp through the turnips, rough grass, and clover-fields. The 

 nest and eggs of this Crake are freiiuently mown out in the haymaking 

 season, and tlie bird will then lay again, and may sometimes rear a second 

 lirood, as we have caught with the hand in North Devon nestlings in mid- 

 September, still in their black down. These late broods, no doubt, 

 provide the Land-Bails which are occasionall}' shot during the winter 

 months, and are to be seen hanging up in the game-dealers' shops in 

 December ; one in our collection was procured at Christmas-time. On 

 Dartmoor we have found Land-Bails on the most elevated hogs, such as 

 Baybarrow Mire, &c., in the autumn, sometimes encountering half a 

 dozen in a morning's walk, when we have been after Snipe. We have 

 seen a Land-Bail, when the setter has been drawing on it, take to the 

 water, and swim gracefully across a stream, jerking its tail in the same 

 way as the Common Moor-hen. C^ne summer a Land-Bail brought her 

 young brood into our kitchen-garden, which on one side was separated 

 from a meadow by iron railings only. As we were walking on one of the 

 paths, accompanied by a terrier, she suddenly darted out from the goose- 

 berry-bushes, and furiously attacked the dog, pecking at him, and. Hying 

 up against him, fairly drove him away. When Hushed in a clover-field 

 the Land-Bail flies slowdy and laboriously low over the ground, with 

 dropping legs, and soon settles again in the cover, l)ut we must not 

 estimate the bird's power of wing from tliese, appareiitly, feeble efforts. 

 We one day saw a bird dart like a ILnvk over a stuhble-field, seeming 

 first to descend from a considerable height, and then settle on the ground, 

 and going up, with much curiosity to ascertain what it was, were- much 

 surprised when it rose before us, and proved to be a Land-Bail. In the 

 summer-time, when these noisy birds arc calling incessantly in tho 

 mowing grass, we have, with a tooth-comb, succeeded in so closely 

 imitating their crj' that after a few moments we have drawn them close 

 up to us, and standing fjuite still have had them running between our 

 legs. At the time of their migration, at the end of September, we have 



