328 
OBSEIiVATIONS ON 
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 gra- 
vity, 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. 
When we came to draw it, we found the entrails so soft 
and tender, that in appearance they might have been dressed 
like the ropes of a woodcock. The craw or crop was small 
tions to take of White's description, except that the black was much 
bromne?' than that of a partridge instead of somewhat like, which is not 
in fact contradictory. The whole of Lord Egremont's collection was after- 
wards destroyed by maggots, and the specimen has long ceased to exist. 
As I understand it has been surmised that the hybrid bird described by 
White might have been a young black cock in moult, I wish to state, in 
the most positiA^e manner, that I am certain it was not. I had, at the 
period when I examined it, been in the annual habit of shooting young 
black game, and was perfectly well acquainted with all their variations 
of plumage ; and had also been accustomed to see them reared in con- 
finement. It is a point on which I could not be deceived. The bird 
had neither the legs and feet, nor the plumage, of a black cock in any 
stage of its growth." — Ed. 
' The scarcity of the land-rail in the neighbourhood of Selborne in 
Gilbert White's day is not a little remarkable. Considering that the 
bii-d migrates to this country in spring from the south of Europe, one 
would suppose that in Hants and Sussex of aU counties it would be 
found in tolerable plenty. It is by no means scarce there at the present 
day. In September, 1863, the writer, while shooting in company with 
a friend within ten miles of Selborne, killed three brace of land-rails in 
one day. This was on the 4th September, and the birds were all shot 
out of clover. If the species were not really overlooked by Gilbert 
White, owing to its skulking habits, the increase in its numbers at the 
present day in the district of which he wrote must be attributed to the 
alteration which has taken place in the mode of cultivating the surround- 
ing farms, and the greater attraction which is now alToruea to the bird 
in the way of food and shelter. — Ed. 
