XXXVI THE LANDRAWS CRY 319 



with rapid wheelings high above your head, is quite musical, 

 and approaches nearly to the note of a thrush or blackbird. 

 Not only the whistle of the plover, but even the harsh cry of 

 the landrail, and the monotonous call of the cuckoo, are always 

 grateful to my ear, because, being heard only in the spring-time, 

 they are associated in my mind with the idea of the departure 

 of winter and the return of fine weather. It is often a matter 

 of astonishment to me how the throat of a bird so tender and 

 delicately formed as the landrail can emit such hard and grating 

 cries, which sound more as if they were produced by some iron 

 or brazen instrument than from the windpipe of a bird. The 

 raven or crow look as if they ought to be the owners of a harsh 

 and croaking voice, and a shrill note comes appropriately from 

 the throat of a barn-door cock ; but a landrail appears to be a 

 bird quite unfitted to produce a sound like that of a piece of 

 iron drawn along the teeth of a rusty saw. There is a way of 

 imitating their cry so exactly as to bring the bird to your feet, 

 but I never could succeed in doing so, or indeed in making it 

 answer me at all, though I have tried the plan which I was told 

 was infallible, of drawing the edges of two horse's ribs against 

 each other, one of them being smooth and the other notched 

 like a saw. Although the fields were swarming with the birds 

 at the time, I never succeeded in persuading even a single one 

 to answer me. 



