568 THE RAILS 



seem to travel singly, or by ones and twos, 1 and work their way up 

 along the west coast as well as dispersing inland. A good many 

 of course turn westward and make their way into Ireland, but very 

 few seem to arrive on our south-eastern shores, and altogether the 

 corncrake may be described as scarce throughout the whole district 

 east of a line from the Spurn to Beachy Head, while in some localities 

 it is quite unknown. Apparently the birds which breed in Germany 

 follow the same route, but turn eastward on reaching the middle 

 of France, for they do not reach their breeding-grounds in Germany 

 till some time after our visitors have settled down. Naumann, whose 

 personal observations are almost always reliable, was of opinion that 

 the migrations of this species were carried on by night, and that 

 they flew at a considerable height. This is probably correct : on two 

 occasions Naumann tells us that he heard the well-known "crake" 

 high in air on still nights, 2 and it is very likely that the sea passages 

 are made in this way, and that when travelling by land, long stages 

 of inhospitable country are occasionally covered. But on the whole 

 the migration appears to be a somewhat leisurely one, each bird 

 moving north as it feels inclined. That it is at times capable of very 

 long-sustained and powerful flight is sufficiently shown by the fact 

 that its migrations extend not only throughout practically the whole 

 of Europe, Asia, and Africa, but as a straggler it has occurred even in 

 places so far apart as Australia, Greenland, and the United States. 



It is, however, a curious fact that records of the discovery of this 

 species in midwinter in the British Isles, especially during mild 

 seasons, exist in considerable number. It is very probable that some 

 of these are late hatched birds, which in the ordinary course would 

 have succumbed to the first approach of winter, and some may be 

 pricked birds ; but it is clear that there is a tendency on the part of 

 this species, as in the case of the common-sandpiper, stone-curlew, 



1 E. T. Booth, however, once flushed twelve or fourteen from a rough bank not more than 

 200 yards long, near the West Sussex coast, early in May 18(57 (Rough Notes, vol. i.), and on 

 May 5, 1888, hundreds were seen about the S. Arklow lightship. 



2 Vogel Mitteleuropas, vii. p. 183. 



