322 THE BIRDS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



Much smaller than Water-Rail or Moorhen, this bird may 

 be distinguished by its spotted olive-brown dress and brown 

 barred flanks ; the other small crakes are not spotted on the 

 face and neck. Even more skulking than the last species, the 

 opportunity it affords for observation is usually brief — a fleeting 

 vision of a running form which might just as well be a rat. 

 Even a dog finds difficulty in flushing the bird from the deep 

 bogs and marshes that it normally frequents, but it is a vigorous 

 nocturnal migrant, and when it meets with a telegraph wire or 

 other obstacle, or is attracted by the rays from . a lighthouse, it 

 comes to grief. The "wired" corpse is more familiar than 

 the living bird. When swimming it looks small, like a diminu- 

 tive Moorhen, bobbing its head in time with its spasmodic 

 forward jerks. I have not seen it on the wing for more than a 

 few seconds, and only on land when running rapidly. Its 

 food is both animal and vegetable, similar to that of the Water- 

 Rail. No doubt the Spotted Crake has various cries, but I 

 have only heard one, a loud, ticking call, quite distinct from 

 the squeal of the Water-Rail or other of its notes. It is not 

 only nuptial, for I heard it from a bird which rushed into a 

 reed-bed in November ;^a loud, regular tchack^ tchiick^ was 

 repeated two or three times. At about 3.30 on a May morn- 

 ing, at the edge of an impassable Cheshire marsh, I heard a 

 low tick^ tack^ rather like the note of a Snipe, which rose quickly 

 in pitch and volume until it throbbed like a piston — ichick- 

 tcJmck^ tchick-tchuck^ every second. It stopped suddenly, and 

 after a pause again began low, ascending until the air seemed 

 to vibrate. This throbbing repetition, with its sudden end, 

 was continued for about half an hour. 



The nest is in a marsh or bog, on a tussock or platform of 

 broken stems ; it is built of aquatic plants, and often has a 

 concealing bower of living stems bent over it. The eight to 

 twelve eggs, buff with dark red and sepia spots as a rule 

 (Plate 148), are laid in May. The down of the nestling is black. 



