THE CORNCRAKE 567 



THE CORNCRAKE 

 [F. C. R. JOURDAIN] 



The reader in search of information as to the domestic habits 

 of this interesting bird will find very little to the point in most of 

 our best-known ornithological works. To most people the bird itself 

 is something of a mystery : the loud, rasping monotonous crake is 

 familiar enough to residents in the west of England, in Scotland, or 

 in Ireland, but the bird is rarely seen except by chance or after 

 patient and cautious watching. Probably it is only after many 

 failures that at last, late in April, when the meadow grass is still too 

 short to give much cover even to a Rail, as we sit quietly watching 

 from a friendly hedgerow, suddenly the strident call rings out from 

 the grass close at hand. There is a moment's pause, and it is 

 repeated, and once more silence follows. There is a snake-like 

 rustle in the grass and a bird's head appears at the end of a very 

 elongated neck, and regards us intently for some seconds, A hasty 

 movement and he rises with heavy, laborious, flight and drooping 

 legs, but after going a short distance drops again into cover, and 

 presently we hear his raucous voice a quarter of a mile away. Yet 

 in spite of its apparently weak flight, that bird has probably been 

 travelling from somewhere in Central Africa for months past. About 

 February he reached Marocco, and choosing the short sea passage 

 by the Straits of Gibraltar, crossed over into Spain. Since then he 

 and his companions have gradually worked their way northward 

 through the Iberian Peninsula and across France, until at last they 

 have reached the Channel. This time, instead of working eastward 

 and following the Dover to Calais route, it seems that most birds 

 prefer to make for the south-western shores of England, the first 

 arrivals reaching us about the second or third week in April. They 



