578 THE RAILS 



with stately tread, and, raising his half-expanded wings, then stretches 

 out his neck to its utmost extent and utters a loud and sharp, " trick, 

 track." Again it is repeated, more loudly, as becoming more and 

 more excited he repeats his monotonous love-song, " trick track, trick 

 track, trick track." The ticking note resounds in the silence of the 

 reed-bed with the regularity and rapidity of a noisy clock. At last 

 his attentions become too pronounced : the hen suddenly whisks 

 round and darts away through the marsh now threading her way 

 through the tussocks, now swimming now flying low over the water 

 surface, until at last she tires and allows herself to be caught by her 

 eager admirer. 1 



Other writers, such as Messrs. Alston and Harvie-Brown, who 

 met with this bird commonly near Archangel, compare the note to a 

 peculiar " whuit, whuit," while Mr. F. Boyes says it may be imitated 

 by pronouncing the word " quick, quick " rapidly every three or four 

 seconds. 2 Lord Lilford says it is a very noisy bird, and compares the 

 pairing-call to the single " twit " of the pied-woodpecker, but says it 

 is not so loud or harsh. He adds that a sudden loud noise, such as a 

 clap of thunder or a gunshot, will often set all the crakes in a marsh 

 screaming, twittering, and whistling for some minutes. 3 This must 

 be the same sound which Naumann describes as a rapidly spoken 

 " quit," but he also speaks of a call-note, which it is impossible to 

 reduce to letters. 



The nest is generally well concealed, and is often only discovered 

 by the bird being almost trodden on by accident, or else by the help 

 of dogs which have been trained to the work. When Seebohm 

 visited Valkenswaard in N. Brabant, the winding course of the 

 river presented many suitable breeding-sites, which have since 

 disappeared through the straightening of the river bed. He describes 

 how, having offered a reward of threepence for an egg, no fewer than 



1 Naturgeschichte d. Vogel Mitteleuropas, vii. p. 162. 



2 Zoologist, 1877, p. 260. 



1 Coloured Figures of British Birds, iv. p. 132. 



