CORN-CRAKE 165 
long grass, it flits off in an awkward manner with its legs 
dangling down, only to alight in the same or an adjoining 
meadow ; for this bird is nocturnal in its habits, and when 
awakened by the sudden approach of a dog, finding no 
chance of escape by running and ‘hiding (which all Crakes 
prefer), terrified, it shoots up vertically through the long 
grass, dangling its legs parallel to the grass-stems so as not 
to impede its flight.! I attribute its very short flight under 
these circumstances to sensitiveness to daylight, for 1 have 
noted that when hunting Corn-Crakes in the summer with 
dogs, if the sun be shining very brightly, they rise on the 
wing only to drop again immediately. 
But I have observed the flight of this species when 
migrating, to be very different. For instance, at daybreak 
on August 13th, 1890, when steaming from Belfast to 
Dublin and about ten miles off the coast of the co. Down, 
I observed a Corn-Crake flying over the sea. As it neared 
our steamer it descended in its flight and passed us in a 
rather zig-zag manner and with great velocity. At one 
time it came within fifteen yards of the steamer flying 
almost on a level with the deck. The legs were certainly 
not dangling down, and as far as I could ascertain they 
were stretched out behind. At night, these birds have 
been observed by hundreds round lhghthouses and light- 
ships, and the ‘‘repeated occurrence of the Corn-Crake 
several miles from shore—killed striking against lanterns 
between 100 and 200 feet above the sea-level—must satisfy 
the most sceptical that this species can fly at a high level 
with great power and velocity.”” But it is not surprising 
that this bird should be endowed with great and sus- 
taining powers of flight: it is not only an essentially 
migratory species, but one which at times ventures upon 
vast peregrinations across the Oceans. Thus Professor 
Newton states that ‘in the course of its wanderings 
it has now been known to reach the coast of Greenland, 
and several times that of North America, to say nothing of 
Bermuda, in every instance we may believe as a straggler 
1 Many other nocturnal birds when startled in the daytime from their 
sleeping-quarters take wing in quite a different manner from their 
ordinary evening flight. Witness the confused bustling flight of a Wood- 
cock, or even of an Owl, disturbed in the daytime, compared with the 
buoyant slow-flapping evening flight. 
* Barrington and More, Migration Reports, 1886, p. 5. 
