BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 349 
though the majority pass on and are found in Africa as 
far south as Cape Colony. 
[The Virginian Quail {Ortyx virginianus, Linnseus) was 
introduced to this county at Drumlanrig in 1858 by 
John Shaw, head-gamekeeper to the Duke of Buccleuch. 
They were liberated on the " big holm," west of Nith Bridge, 
but soon disappeared ; one was killed in Kirkcudbright- 
shire, and the species never became estabhshed. It is 
generally distributed throughout North America, and, being 
purely an introduced species to this county, is only 
mentioned as such.] 
THE LAND-RAIL. Crex pratensis, Bechstein. 
Local name — Corn-Crake. 
" . . . . now at eve is heard 
The com craik's harsh, yet not unpleasing call. 
Oft pausing, still renewed from place to place. 
Vam all attempts to trace her by her note ; 
For, when the spot whence last it came is reached. 
Again 'tis heard hoarse-harping far behind — 
Till silenced by the mower's rasping stone." 
James Grahame.— " British Georgics " (May) 
A summer-visitant, in some seasons more numerous than in others. 
Sir WiUiam Jardine writes of the Land-Rail : " In the vale of 
the Annan, in the south of Scotland, ten years since, the 
bird was extremely common, its note being heard in ahnost 
every alternate field ; at the present time, it may almost be 
accounted rare ; during the last summer (1841) only one or 
two pairs being heard within a stretch of several miles."* 
In some years this species appears in far greater numbers 
than in others : thus in 1891 it was very numerous in Upper 
* Nat. Lib., 1842, Vol. XII., pp. 331, 332. 
