228 LAND RAIL OR CORN CRAKE 
are said to be carried about in winter by the natives, to keep their 
hands warm—to the British Isles. With us they are nowhere 
plentiful, but are occasionally shot by sportsmen in most parts of 
the country. In cornfields, on the shores of Belfast Lough, in the 
north of Ireland, they are of frequent occurrence. 
In Palestine the Quails still come up in the night, as of old, and 
‘cover the land,” 
ORDER FULICARILE 
FAMILY RALLIDZ 
LAND RAIL, OR CORN CRAKE 
CREX PRATENSIS 
Upper feathers dusky brown bordered with reddish ash; over the eye and 
down the side of the head, a streak of ash ; wing-coverts rust-ted ; quills 
reddish brown; throat, belly, and abdomen, whitish; breast pale 
yellowish brown; flanks barred with white and rust-red; upper man- 
dible brown, lower whitish ; irides brown; feet reddish brown. Length 
ten inches. Eggs yellowish brown spotted and speckled with grey and 
reddish brown. 
FEw persons can have spent the summer months in the country, 
and enjoyed their evenings in the open air, without having grown 
familiar with the note of the Corn Crake; yet, strange to say, 
among those who have heard it on numberless occasions, not one 
in a hundred (leaving sportsmen out of the account) have ever 
seen one alive. Its whole life, while with us, seems to be spent 
among the long grass and stalks of hay or corn, between which 
its long legs and slender body give it peculiar facility of moving, 
and it is only when hard pressed that it rises from the ground. 
Its flight is low, with its legs hanging down ; and it usually drops 
into the nearest hedge or cover which presents itself, and from 
which it is not easily flushed a second time. 
The Corn Crake used to be found, during summer, in all the 
counties of England, but is less frequent in Cornwall and Devon- 
shire than in the counties farther east, and increases in abundance 
as we advance northwards. In the north of Ireland it is to be 
heard in every meadow and cornfield, and here its incessant cry 
in the evenings is monotonous, if not wearisome; in many parts 
of Scotland it is also very common, and here it is much more 
frequently seen. In waste lands, where it can find no continuous 
corn, it takes refuge in patches of flags, rushes, or tall weeds, and 
if watched for, may be seen leaving its place of concealment, and 
quietly walking along the grass, lifting its feet high, and stooping 
