OF HARTING. 2Q I 



flushed and shot at, but as it did not fall, although it 

 was supposed to have been struck, a stentorian chorus 

 in all possible keys at once, of " Mark that Woodcock ! 

 Mark that Woodcock!" immediately followed the shot. 

 The woodcock, however, appeared to escape being 

 marked ; but as its line of flight was forward in the 

 direction the beaters were following, the party quietly 

 continued their progress through the cover, till they 

 reached the station of a juvenile "stop," who was 

 " whistling (perhaps) for want of thought," and at the 

 same time improvising an accompaniment to his in- 

 spirations with a stick between the bars of a gate. 

 " I say, young un," shouted old Barton the keeper, 

 "have ye sin e'er a Oodcock come over this way?" 

 " No, I ha'n't," was the straightforward answer of the 

 lad, whose unfledged appearance, by the bye, pointed 

 to the probability that his study of Ornithology was 

 as yet in the elementary stage. A suspicion of this 

 may perhaps have occurred to Barton, who after a 

 moment's reflection supplemented his first question 

 with another of a more general aim. " Ha'n't ye sin 

 ne'er a bird than?" "Ees, there's one gone over 

 yender with a girt long stick in his mouth (!)" 

 Whether this lucid reply led to the collapse of the 

 questioner, or to the eventual bagging of the woodcock, 

 we are not in a position to state. 



The Water Rail (Rallus aquaticus) is found in the 

 ditches and watercourses in the lowland meadows 

 every winter, but we have only twice met with its 

 nest, once among the meadow grass near the Great 

 Pond, and, on another occasion, in a solitary tuft of 

 heath near the Blackrye Pond.* The Corn Crake 

 (Crex pratensis) is generally distributed, but not 

 numerous ; it does not appear to confine itself to 

 the moist meadows, but more frequently makes its 



In a third instance we took its eggs in early spring, on the 

 site of Sir Anthonie Windesor's "moated house," near the 

 Parlour-pond at Downparks. 



U 2 



