Shooting Corncrakes. 197 



previously alluded to. But as the crakes, though 

 they will take refuge in a hedge, do not travel along 

 it habitually, this circumstance may be accidental. 

 Crakes, notwithstanding they run so swiftly, do not 

 seem to move far when once they have arrived ; they 

 appear to restrict themselves to the field they have 

 chosen, or, at the furthest, make an excursion into< 

 the next and return again, so that you may always 

 know where to go to hear one. 



The mowers cutting these meadows find the eggs 

 the nest being on the ground and bring them to 

 the farmstead, both as a curiosit}' and to be eaten, 

 some thinking them equal to plovers' eggs. Though 

 you may follow the sound ' Grake, crake ! ' in the 

 grass for hours at a time, and sometimes get so near 

 as to throw j'our walking-stick at a bunch of grass, 

 you will never see the bird ; and nothing, neither 

 stick nor stone, will make it rise. Yet it is easy to 

 shoot, as I found, in one particular way. The trick 

 is to drive it into a hedge. Two persons and a spaniel 

 well in hand walk towards the ' Crake, crake ! ' keep- 

 ing some distance apart. The bird at first runs 

 straight away ; then, finding himself still pursued, 

 tries to dodge back, but finds the line extended. He 

 then takes refuge in silence, and endeavors to slip 

 past unseen and unheard ; but the spaniel's power of 

 scent baffles that. At last he makes for the hedge, 

 when one person immediately goes on the other side, 

 and the spaniel beats up it. The bird is now sur- 

 rounded and cannot escape, and, as the dog comes close 

 upon him, is compelled to rise and fly. As he rises 

 his flight at first somewhat resembles the partridge's, 

 but it is slower and heavier, and he can be shot 



