CORN-CRAKE 167 
bird is standing. I am satisfied after repeated observation, 
that this species possesses no peculiar powers of modu- 
lating its voice after the fashion of a ventriloquist. The 
note is a loud vociferous rasp, invariably uttered with the 
greatest amount of power and zest; moreover, the careful 
listener will generally hear a loud call followed by a more 
distant one, and this alternation often continues for some 
time. This is simply the result of two males in different 
parts of a meadow, ‘craking’ in response, as though con- 
tending with one another for their right of territory. during 
the breeding- season. The ‘crake’ is sounded both when 
the bird is running and standing, hence the constant altera- 
tion in the volume, but not in the tone of the voice, as the 
birds move rapidly through the meadow. 
Sir R. Payne-Gallwey rejects the idea of ventriloquism 
in the Corn-Crake, and attributes the variations in sound to 
the alternate calling of two males, while challenging each 
other, and in the meantime moving from place to place. 
The note is commonly heard towards evening and during 
the night, usually when the bird is in cover. Mr. Ussher, 
however, cites a case of a Corn-Crake “standing openly in a 
field before a house in Donegal while it craked loudly.” He 
also describes another call ‘‘ lke the squeal of a trapped 
rabbit, and in one case the bird, which produced it in @ 
suppressed tone, was approaching its hatching mate.’ 
Food. — This species lives on insects, small worms, 
slugs, and vegetable substances, including the seeds of 
grasses, and clover. Its flesh is very palatable, and in 
former days was considered a table luxury, for so Dryden 
says :— 
“The rayle which seldom comes but upon rich men’s spits.” 
Nest.—It is quite a mistake to think that the Corn- 
Crake is exclusively a ‘dry-land’ bird, breeding only in 
long meadows, clover, or corn-fields : the large majority do 
resort to such situations, nevertheless in some cases the nest 
is built among damp herbage. In the co. Wicklow I have 
more than once flushed a hatching-bird from off her nest 
on a small grass-grown hillock, damp and sodden and 
surrounded by bog-land and reeds. That the Corn-Crake is 
in some cases partially aquatic like its congeners, in the 
nesting-season, is borne out by the remarks of Mr. Ussher, 
namely, that on small islets off Wexford, it ‘‘ nests annually 
in rank grass among the colony of Terns,” and again 
