OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS 
275 
LAND-EAIL. * 
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 migra- 
tion ; 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. 
When we came to draw it, we found the entrails so soft and tender 
in appearance, they might have been dressed like the ropes of a wood- 
cock. 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 attrition 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 
functions 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 ISTorth Wilts, and in the meadows near Paradise 
Gardens at Oxford, where I have often heard them cry crex, crex. The 
bird mentioned above weighed seven and a half ounces, was fat and 
tender, and in flavour like the flesh of a woodcock. The liver was very 
large and delicate. — White. 
Land-rails are more plentiful with us than in the neighbourhood of 
Selborne. I have found four brace in an afternoon, and a friend of 
mine lately shot nine in two adjoining fields ; but I never saw them 
in any other season than the autumn. 
That it is a bird of passage there can be little doubt, though Mr. 
White thinks it poorly qualified for migration, on account of the wings 
being short, and not placed in the exact centre of gravity ; how that 
may be I cannot say, but I know that its heavy sluggish flight is not 
owing to its inability of flying faster, for I have seen it fly very swiftly, 
although in general its actions are sluggish. Its unwillingness to rise 
proceeds, I imagine, from its sluggish disposition, and its great 
timidity, for it will sometimes squat so close to the ground as to suffer 
itself to be taken up by the hand, rather than rise ; and yet it will at 
times run very fast. 
What Mr. White remarks respecting the small shell snails found in 
its gizzard, confirms my opinion, that it frequents corn-fields, seed 
clover, and brakes or fern, more for the sake of snails, slugs, and other 
insects which abound in such places, than for the grain or seeds ; and 
that it is entirely an insectivorous bird. — Markwick. 
have on the subject, and we see nothing in the figure, (of which a reduced 
woodcut is given,) to warrant any doubt being held, after the distinct and very 
decided evidence given by Mr. Herbert. 
* The land-rail or corn-crake is a regular migrant, notwithstanding the shortness 
of its wing. The food is somewhat varied, we once took a mouse from the 
stomach of a land-rail. 
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