THE SPOTTED CRAKE 329 
from time to time to pick up its food, consisting of worms, insects, 
snails, and seeds. 
The Land Rail is considered a delicate article of food, and has 
long been prized as such. In France it used to be termed, in old 
sporting phraseology, ‘ King of the Quails’, the Quail being a 
bird which it much resembles in colouring. 
The Corn Crake places its nest, which is composed of a few 
straws, in a hollow in the ground, among corn or hay, and lays 
from eight to ten, or rarely, twelve eggs. The young birds are 
able to accompany their parents in their mazy travels as soon as 
they have left the shell. The note of the old bird is heard much 
later in the season than the song of most other birds, and is prob- 
ably employed as a call-note to the young, which, but for some 
such guidance, would be very likely to go astray. In the still 
evenings of August, I have, while standing on the shore of the 
island of Islay, distinctly heard its monotonous crek-crek proceed- 
ing from a cornfield on the opposite shore of Jura, the Sound 
of Islay which intervened being here upwards of half a mile wide. 
On ordinary occasions it is not easy to decide on the position and 
distance of the bird while uttering its note; for the Corn Crake 
is a ventriloquist of no mean proficiency. 
THE SPOTTED CRAKE 
PORZANA MARUETTA 
Forehead, throat, and a streak over the eye, lead-grey ; upper plumage olive- 
brown, spotted with black and white; breast and under plumage olive 
and ash, spotted with white, the flanks barred with white and brown; 
bill greenish yellow, orange at the base; irides brown; feet greenish 
yellow. Length nine inches. Eggs yellowish red, spotted and speckled 
with brown and ash. 
THE Spotted Crake is smaller in size than the Corn Crake, and 
far less common. It is shot from time to time in various parts 
of Great Britain, especially in the fen countries, to which its habits 
are best suited. It frequents watery places which abound with 
reeds, flags, and sedges, and among these it conceals itself, rarely 
using its wings, but often wading over mud and weeds, and taking 
freely to the water, in which it swims with facility. The nest, 
which is a large structure, composed of rushes and reeds, is placed 
among thick vegetation, near the water’s edge, and contains from 
seven to ten eggs. 
The drainage and improving of waste lands has driven this 
Crake away, but its eggs have been found in Roscommon, and a 
nestling in Kerry. 
