OF NATURE. 215 



laying and sitting, will get the plumage of 

 the male." May not this hybrid pheasant 

 (as Mr, White calls it) be a bird of this 

 kind ? that is, an old hen pheasant which 

 had just begun to assume the plumage of 

 the cock. Markwick. 



LAND-RAIL. 



A man brought me a land-rail or daker- 

 hen, a bird so rare in this district that we 

 seldom see more than one or two in a 

 season, and those only in Autumn. This is 

 deemed a bird of passage by all the writers : 

 yet from its formation seems to be poorly 

 qualified for migration ; for its wings are 

 short, and placed so forward, and out of 

 the centre of gravity, that it flies in a very 

 heavy and embarrassed manner, with its 

 legs hanging down ; and can hardly be 

 sprung a second time, as it runs very fast, 

 and seems to depend more on the swiftness 

 of its feet than on its flying. 



