FULICARIM. ( 194 ) RALLIDM. 



THE LANDRAIL. 



CORN CRAKE, CORN CRAKER, LAND HEN, DAKER HEN. 



Crex pratensis. 

 %^z Corn Crafee* 



Poor bird, though harsh thy note, I love it well! 



If tells of summer eves, mild and serene, 



When through the grass, waist-deep, I wont to wade 



In fruitless chace of thee ; now here, now there. 



Thy desultory call. Oft does thy call 



The midnight silence break ; oft, ere the dawn. 



It wakes the slumbering Lark ; he upward wings 



His misty way, and, viewless, sings and soars. 



Grahame, Birds of Scotland. 



The cry of the Corn Crake is generally heard in this 

 county for the first time in the season from the begin- 

 ning to the middle of May, when it arrives here from its 

 southern winter quarters. The welcome note usually 

 comes from some neighbouring grass field, but if the 

 spring be late, as it was in 1887, and the grass and 

 clover have not made sufficient growth to afford con- 

 cealment, the bird hides amongst any rough herbage near 

 its usual resorts, such as the long grass in young planta- 

 tions and about boggy or waste places. As an instance 

 of this, I may mention that on the afternoon of the 15 th 

 of May 1887, while walking along the side of the Tweed 

 near the boat-house at Paxton, I was agreeably surprised 

 to hear the loud " Crek, crek " of a Corn Crake amongst 

 some bushes in an adjoining strip of tall ash and elm 



