CORN-CRAKE 33 



colouring and their skulking habits, rather than to their wings, for 

 safety. What proportion of British rails leave the country in winter 

 does not seem to be ascertained. The nest is often built on a bunch 

 of rushes, and raised to some height above the surface of the ground 

 by layers of reeds and sedge, surmounted by a cup of broken fragments 

 of dry rushes. The eggs, which are laid in April or May, and are 

 usually from five to seven, but occasionally reach as many as nine or 

 eleven in number, are generally oval in shape, and vary considerably 

 in their degree of glossiness. The colour is delicate pinkish cream, 

 spotted with reddish brown and pale purple, these markings being 

 thickly crowded at the large end, but elsewhere sparse. A second 

 clutch appears to be often laid in summer. 



^ , The harsh rasping cry from which the corn-crake 



Corn-Crake , . '^ .^ , , , ^ .,. . 



, „ ., takes Its name is a sound much less familiar in 



or Land-Rail , r 1 



,„ t M summer to those 01 the present generation who live 



in the country than it was to their parents, as these 

 birds are much scarcer than formerly. By Linnaeus the corn-crake 

 was included in the same genus as the water-rail, under the name of 

 Ralliis crex, and by many ornithologists it is accordingly termed Crex 

 crex, in place of Crex pratensis, which is a far more euphonious name. 

 According to modern views, it is the only representative of its genus, 

 which is sufficiently distinguished from the water -rail, on the one 

 hand, by the shortness and stoutness of its beak, and from the moor- 

 hen, on the other, by the absence of a fleshy shield at the root of 

 the beak. 



The corn-crake is a migratory species, ranging from Europe 

 through western and Central Asia as far eastwards as the Yenisei 

 valley in Siberia, and visiting northern Africa in winter, while 

 stragglers have been known to wander as far as America and Australia, 

 and in summer to reach Greenland. In Great Britain it is to be 

 found everywhere, although, as already said, much less abundantly 

 than in former years, ranging, and apparently breeding, as far north 

 as the Hebrides, Orkneys, and Shetlands. It is equally widespread 

 in Ireland, where it occasionally remains during winter. It may be 

 added that a pair were killed in Mull some years ago at the end 

 of December. 



Measuring about 10^ inches in length, the corn-crake is pale 

 brown in colour above, with dark middles to the feathers, v/hile the 

 under-parts are dark buff, passing into white in the middle of the 

 abdomen, and barred with reddish brown and white on the flanks. 



D 



