There is no better bird for the table than the landrail, but he is
hardly a sporting bird. His flight is very slow, but he is sometimes
missed by quick shots who have been shooting rapid rising partridges and
shoot too quickly at these slow flying birds. The landrail has from 7 to
10 eggs, breeds successfully in insect-breeding seasons, and has been
shot in large numbers in a single field. A little more than a quarter of
a century ago, Mr. Farrer, Mr. C. W. Digby, and Alex. M. Luckham shot
24½ or 25½ couple of landrail in a field of clover-heads at the end of
Nine Barrow Down, Purbeck; and in 1905 there were 26½ couple killed in
the day about two miles west of this field. Sparrow hawks used to be
trained especially for taking landrails, as mentioned in Chafin’s
_History of Cranbourne Chace_, dated 1818. In 1880 there were 211
landrails shot at Acryse Park, Folkestone, and 35 birds in one day by
two guns in two clover-fields. The landrail, or corncrake, is known as
_Crex pratensis_.