THE LAND RAIL. 93 



Bj Josephus, Varro, and Siculus. 



settle upon the ships they first light on, from 

 whence they are taken with very little trouble. 

 It is surprising how a bird which has no very 

 strong wing, should be able to continue so long 

 a flight. Joseph us says the Arabian Gulph 

 breeds more quails than any other place. Varro 

 and others remark, that such large numbers have 

 in the spring time lighted upon ships at sea, in 

 their passage from one climate to another, as to 

 sink the ships ; and that an hundred thousand 

 of quails and swallows together have been taken 

 in a day. And Diodorus Siculus gives much the 

 same account of taking them at Rhinoculara, on 

 the edge of the wilderness, where the children of 

 Israel were fed. 



THE LAND RAIL 



IS from the point of each wing, when ex- 

 tended, about nineteen or twenty inches, and 

 weighs about six or seven ounces. The bill is about 

 an inch long, and very much resembles that of 

 a water-hen ; the under mandible is of a dusky 

 colour, the upper more whitish. The body of 

 this bird is narrow, and seems compressed on 

 each side ; the chin, breast, and lower part of 

 the belly are white, upon the head are two broad 

 black lines; it has also a white line that passes 

 from the shoulders resembling that of a moor- 



