34 WILD LIFE OF SCOTLAND 



" crex, crex " comes from the grass field. It is 

 one of the voices of the summer night, like that 

 of the partridge. Although so generally dis- 

 tributed, and so familiar to the peasant that it 

 seems one of the presences of the country, it passes 

 some districts over, or only appears rarely, and in 

 small numbers. Unlike the lapwing, and even the 

 partridge, the instances of the corncrake wandering, 

 and nesting beyond the fences must be exceptional. 

 For one thing, the short herbage of the .moors, and 

 wastes would scarcely suit its hiding propensities. 



Round this bird the war about migration hotly 

 raged. Reluctant to take to the wing, it was 

 hard to imagine that it would attempt a long 

 sea voyage ; and so it was supposed to creep into 

 some sheltered corner, and sleep through the cold 

 weather. Nor was the fact that it was never 

 found, sufficient to disabuse the mind of this con- 

 veniently easy solution. Ignorance dies hard. But 

 lighthouse records, and the habit of lighting on 

 ships, in its passage, were incontrovertible. 



When at length " cuck-oo " is heard mingling 

 with the melancholy cry of the wood-pigeon, the 

 wave has passed for the season. 



