fifteen couple of Landrails in one day, and seyCn couple the
next day.
These birds usually leave this country early in October,.
but one was killed near London in the month of December
1834 ; one near Yarmouth in January 183® ; one is recorded
to have been killed in Ireland in January'1839, and one
on the 29th of March, but whether this last was an early
spring visitor o r had remained all7 the winter, could nnly be
conjectured. I
The Landrail is^common in valleys,’ near rivers in1 Scotland!
and abundant in Orkney and Shetland. I t also visits Denmark,
Sweden, and Norway, going as far north as the; Faroe
Islands and \Iceland. It: is abundant; as might- be expected;
over the European Continent; andr Mr. Strickland saw it: at
Smyrna in winter. Dr. Heineken included the Landrail
among the birds of Madeira ; and Mr.. Wilde feraentions
having seen it at Algiers.
The beak is pale brown ; ithe irides hazel; over the eye
and ear-coverts, and on the cheeks, asK grey ; the head, and
rieck all round, the back, scapulars, and tertials, pale yellowish
brown, each feather having an elongated central streak
Of very dark brown ; tail-coverts and tail-feathers the same1;
wings and wing-^co verts rich.reddish chestnut; quills brown,
tinged with red -b re a st, belly, flanks, and under taihcoyerts
pale buff, barred transversely on the sides and flanks with
darker reddish brown ; legs; toes, and-claws, pale;‘yellowish
brown.
The whole length rather less than ten inches. From the
carpal joint to the end of the longest feather in the wing,
five inches four lines,—
Females are rather smaller than males, and, as well' as
young birds of the year, have the ash grey on the sides of
the head less distinct and pure, and the chestnut colour of
the wing mixed with darker reddish brown.
GRALLATORÊS. RALLIDÆ.
T H E S PO T T ED C RA K K
'Gailihiila porzana,
Raltus
Gallinula
Zapotnia <,
Gallinula *,
Spotted Galtinide, !
„ . Water Hen,
, ,, Gallinuler.
Crake,' -■
P&ttle d'eau Marouette^
'PENN.’Briti Z6cdv vol. ii, p. H 7.
M,QK?k 0 rni th. Diet* -
B ewick, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 140.
Flem. Bfii. An. p/ 99’.'''*'
‘SeIby, Brit. Ornith. vol. ii.’ p. 179.
. J enyns, Brit, An. p. 2,18.
GpuLD, Birds of Europe, pjL xvi.
Temm. Man. d’Grnith. vol. fi. p. 688.
This prettily marked-jbird jis, like the Landrail last described,
a, summer-visiter , to this country, which Montagu
mentions having seen as early as the 14th of March, and as
late as the; 2313iof October. Mr. Blyth has recorded one
instance in which a single specimen was seen by himself in
the London market in the month of January 1834. Compared
with the Landrail, however, this Spotted Rail is much
less numerous as a . species, and more aquatic in its habits ;
frequenting the sides of streams and lakes which are covered