140 RALLIDJ.. 



miles from tlie coast of Ireland ; and similar cases are 

 doubtless far from uncommon. 



The Land Rail frequents the long grass of meadows 

 near rivers, beds of osiers, and fields of green corn 

 and clover, where its presence is indicated by its creaking 

 note ; and hence one of its names, that of Corn Crake, or 

 Corn Creak, by which latter term it is also know^n in Ireland. 

 This call-note may be imitated by passing the edge of the 

 thumb-nail, or a piece of wood, briskly along the line of 

 the points of the teeth of a small comb ; and so similar 

 is the sound, that the bird may be decoyed by it within 

 a very short distance. The male bird is said to be the 

 caller, and he continues the note until a mate be found 

 and incubation commenced ; after which he is less fre- 

 quently heard, although not uncommonly on summer 

 evenings in June, July, and, according to Thompson, 

 occasionally in August. A Land Rail, kept some time in 

 confinement, uttered besides a low guttural sound when 

 alarmed or disturbed. This bird has been credited with 

 ventriloquial powers, but it may be doubted whether this is 

 not in consequence of the marvellous rapidity wdth which it 

 sneaks, unperceived, from one spot to another. The Editor 

 has had ocular proof that notes which were supposed to 

 indicate ventriloquism were in reality the responsive utter- 

 ances of two individuals.* 



The food of the Land Rail consists of worms, slugs, 

 snails, small lizards and insects, with portions of vegetable 

 matter and a few seeds. The nest is formed, on the 

 ground, of dry plants ;^ and a field of thick grass, clover, or 

 green corn, is generally the situation chosen : the eggs, 

 from seven to ten in number, are usually produced in the 

 early part of June ; they are of a pale reddish-white, 

 spotted and speckled with ash-grey and pale red-brown, 



* An old North-country name for the Land Rail is the "Daker-hen." Mr. 

 Cordeaux suggests that it may have reference to the apparently uncertain advance 

 of the bird as expressed in the ventriloquous call-notes; whilst Mr. Harting 

 inclines to trace its origin to the Scandinavian Ager hone — i.e., "field-hen," 

 the initial D being a corrupt abbreviation of " the :" giving " t' acre-hen " for 

 "the acre-hen." (Zool. 1883, p. 229.) 



