202 BIRDS OF LANCASHIRE. 



GENUS CEEX. 

 COKN-CRAKE or LAND-EAIL. 

 Crex pratensis, Becli stein. 

 Local Names — l>akcr-hen, l>i-alcr-J(eii, Umkeit-lioi. 



A summer visitor ; stated to arrive in the south of the 

 county before the end of April, but does not make its 

 appearance in most places until the early part of May. 

 It is not usually seen after the first few days of October ; 

 but many instances are on record of its occurrence 

 during the ^Yinter months, and there seems little doubt 

 that occasionally individuals remain until the following 

 spring. Various explanations of the names by which 

 it is known among the country people have been 

 attempted, but my own belief is that they are taken 

 from its note, and that the}' simply mean the " hen " 

 which says " drake-drake " ; the fact also that about 

 Blackburn it is called the " Draken-hen " or " Draking- 

 hen " confirms, I think, this idea, and to those who 

 know the northern way of pronouncing dr with the 

 hard tli sound of the Keltic d, it will seem as reasonable 

 to interpret the sound to be " drake-drake " as " crake- 

 crake." The Corn-Crake is a common bird, but is 

 decreasing probably from the same cause as the Quail, 

 numbers of its eggs being destroyed by the mowing- 

 machines. Apart from special causes of this sort, 

 however, great variations take place in its numbers 

 in different seasons, and Dr. Skaife (Mag. Nat. 

 Hist., 1838) remarks that, whilst plentiful usually, it 

 was rare in the year in which he was writing. Mr. 

 W. A. Durnford {ZooL, 1878, 1880) says that in Furness 



