BIRDS OF THE FIELD 281 



I he hoarse, level tones Avhich, from a distance, fall 

 upon the ear in what would seem to be almost 

 an unbroken sequence. 



Sometimes, on the instant the cr}- is completed, 

 the Corncrake darts with depressed head through 

 the herbage, and the notes next come, without 

 any manifest break in their continuity, from an 

 entirely different part of the field. The amazing 

 celerity of the bird's movement accounts in some 

 measure for the belief that it possesses ventriloquial 

 power, but at the same time, even when it is quies- 

 cent, the cry seems to proceed from different places, 

 the locality being determined by the direction in 

 which the head happens to be turned. 



The Corncrake appears to distrust its own powers 

 of flight, and rarely takes to the wing except when 

 driven from its cover. ^ Even then it moves heavih', 

 with hanging legs, and soon falls again into the 

 grass; on such occasions it will, at tim.es, run into 

 the wire rabbit-netting which protects the wood, and 

 permit itself to be taken bv hand. 



There is no doubt but that the apparently defect- 

 ive wing-power of this species, together with the 

 fact that it has been repeatedly found, in the depth 

 of winter, in a semi-comatose state, hidden in loose 

 stone walls and in rabbit-burrows, gave colour to the 

 belief that, in common with many other birds, its 

 habit was to hibernate. 



It is now, however, well known that the Corn- 

 crake is a regular migrant, and that it is capable of 



1 There are many records, however, of the Corncrake taking 

 its slow flight from field to field, and even of uttering its 

 characteristic cry when upon the wing. 



