94 THE COMPLETE WILDFOWLER 



ably. Alarm a greenshank and note its call — a sharply-uttered 

 loud " tue-tue-tue. " Listen to him when in search of a mate ; 

 his notes are the same, but much slower, and they have a softer 

 sound — i.e., not so shrill. It may be seen that to call the green- 

 shank's notes sharply would be simply to alarm the bird and 

 tend to drive it away, rather than attract it. This is a crude 

 example of modulation, but it may serve to illustrate my mean- 

 ing and show the importance of observing what might be termed 

 trifling details by the careless and unobservant. These remarks 

 apply equally to ventriloquism. I might cite the corncrake 

 as being a good example of a bird possessing ventriloquial 

 powers. He does not use such powers without some natural 

 service being at the end of it all. Study this bird closely, and 

 you will soon note the fact. There is but one month (May) he 

 will come to a call. Listen to the corncrake grinding in the 

 meadow : all the calls are of one strength of loudness. Call 

 him (I say "him" because he will be a male if he comes) by 

 using part of a hand-saw blade and a strip of hoop-iron. He 

 may on first hearing your call fly within a few feet of you, but, 

 seeing you, he will drop, and, though only perhaps ten feet ofl^, 

 he may call, and this call to you may sound as coming from 

 half-way across the meadow. Further, he may for some 

 minutes run round (out of sight, of course, in the long grass), 

 grating away. Now call him, and note how he calls. The 

 ventriloquism is truly wonderful. As he suspects the genuine- 

 ness of your call, his "crakes" will appear farther away. 

 Cease calling, and without doubt he will strike up full power 

 again, thinking his rival has departed. Now, if the corncrake 

 uses the power here alluded to, I think my readers will admit 

 that shore-birds can, and in my opinion do, employ the same 

 method, though, of course, not in such a marked manner. 

 Suffice it to say, however, that enough ventriloquism is 

 practised by shore-birds to make this feature noteworthy 

 to the shore-bird caller, and, indeed, highly essential when 



