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and in consequence it was quite unable to run a step. This the 

 old bird having discovered, conveyed it to a place of safety by 

 its beak. 



You can scarcely get Corncrakes to take wing ; when they do 

 so, they fly heavily, with their legs hanging down, and generally 

 drop over the nearest hedge, although at times I have seen them 

 take pretty long flights ; one in the Rose Holms, which we flushed 

 out of a new mown field, in which the hay was piked, and the bird 

 feeding on insects among the aftermath, and where there was no 

 cover, took wing, and we watched it till lost to our view. 



When the hay is cleared off the meadows, the birds betake 

 themselves into the turnip and clover fields, which afford them 

 abundance of food and shelter. The food of the Landrail consists 

 of small snails, slugs, worms, beetles, insects, and also the seeds of 

 grasses. 



The Corncrake builds its nest in the thick grass, sometimes in a 

 hedge bottom where there is a dense undergrowth ; it is not a very 

 elaborate affair, consisting of dried grass, and lined with a few finer 

 grasses ; it lays from eight to twelve eggs. I once knew one 

 with sixteen ; but perhaps this number may have been the joint 

 production of a pair of birds. The eggs are very pretty ones, pale 

 yellowish in ground colour, spotted and blotched with brownish 

 red, ashy grey, and purple. The richest marked specimens I ever 

 saw, were taken by a friend of mine in the neighbourhood of 

 Dalston. By his description I made sure they were the eggs of 

 the Quail, a bird which breeds sporadically in this district ; but on 

 inspection they were decidedly those of the Landrail. 



The Corncrake is very highly prized for food ; I know by 

 experience it makes a dainty dish ; and there is an old saying in 

 the country, that a brace of these birds is a present for a queen. 

 This bird, when exposed to danger from which it cannot escape, 

 will simulate death. Mr. Jesse relates the following incident in 

 proof of this assertion : " A gentleman had a Corncrake brought 

 to him by his dog, to all appearance quite dead. As it lay on the 

 ground, he turned it over with his foot, and felt convinced that it 

 was dead ; standing by, however, in silence, he suddenly saw it 



