BRITAIN^S BIRDS AND THEIR NESTS. 93 



of a sitting bird by the grass-mower in the fields, or by 

 a few falling to the guns of sportsmen shooting over the 

 clover in autumn, for the Landrail is held in great 

 esteem for the table, although of no merit for sport. 

 Even in early summer, when the well-known sound betrays 

 the presence of the bird, we are scarcely more likely to 

 catch a glimpse of itself. At times it will sit extremely 

 closely in hiding, and again it will seek safety in fast 

 running through the long grass or the standing crops. 

 In any case, it will generally prove extremely loath to take 

 wing. When captured, it will very often resort to the 

 trick of shamming death. 



Fields of long grass or of standing corn are the usual 

 haunts of the Landrail, and in such places it will in May 

 construct a nest of dried herbage of one sort or another. 

 In this are soon deposited the seven to ten eggs, with 

 their gray and i-ufous spots on a pale, reddish-tinted 

 ground. As is typical of this order, the young are active 

 from the first, although incapable of flight until about six 

 weeks old. When hatched they are clad in blackish 

 down. This in due course gives place to the immature 

 })lumage. This, like the female adult plumage, and the 

 plumage of the adult male in winter, differs very slightly 

 from the adult male's breeding dress depicted in the 

 accompanying plate. 



The distribution of the Landrail in the British Isles 

 is wide ; but it is almost entirely a summer visitor, 

 although a very few remain through the winter, chiefly 

 in Ireland. That such a notoriously skulking bird and 

 one usually loath to take flight should be a migrant 

 is perhaps rather remarkable. Among the Tartars it 

 has given rise to the belief that every migrating Crane 

 takes a Corncrake on its back. We scarcely require 

 the evidence of observers to assure us that this bird 



