216 ON VARIOUS PARTS 



When we came to draw it, we found the 

 entrails so soft and tender, that in appear- 

 ance they might have been dressed like 

 the ropes of a woodcock. The craw or crop 

 was small and lank, containing a mucus ; 

 the gizzard thick and strong, and filled 

 with small shell snails, some whole, and 

 many ground to pieces through the attri- 

 tion which is occasioned by the muscular 

 force and motion of that intestine. We 

 saw no gravels among the food : perhaps 

 the shell snails might perform the func- 

 tions of gravels or pebbles, and might grind 

 one another. Land-rails used to abound 

 formerly, I remember, in the low wet bean 

 fields of Christian Malford in North Wilts, 

 and in the meadows near Paradise-gardens 

 at Oxford, where I have often heard them 

 cry crex, crex. The bird mentioned above 

 weighed 7^oz., was fat and tender, and in 

 flavour like the flesh of a woodcock. The 

 liver was very large and delicate. White. 



