THE SPOTTED CRAKE 229 



fiom time to time to pick up its food, consisting of worms, insects, 

 snaUs, 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 \\^hich 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. 



