224 WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 



moved a few yards nearer, echoing back from some 

 of the buildings. There was, or seemed to be, a slight 

 cessation in the middle of the day, but towards evening 

 it recommenced, and continued without cessation till 

 quite dark. This lasted for some weeks : it chanced 

 that the meadow was mown late, so that the birds were 

 undisturbed. Why so apparently timid a bird should 

 choose a spot near a dwelling is not easy to understand. 

 The crakes, however, when thus localized deceived no 

 one by their supposed ventriloquial powers ; there- 

 fore it seems clear that the deception is caused by 

 their rapid changes of position. The mouse in like 

 manner often gives an impression that it must be in one 

 spot when it is really a yard away, the shrill squeak, 

 as it were, left behind it. It is not easy sometimes to 

 fix the position of the death-tick in woodwork. The 

 home-field or meadow here is a favourite haunt of the 

 crakes, for, like all other birds, they have their special 

 places of resort. Another meadow, at some distance 

 on the same farm, is equally favoured by them. This 

 meadow adjoins that second line of bird- travel, follow- 

 ing a brook previously alluded to. But as the crakes, 

 though they will take refuge in a hedge, do not travel 

 along it habitually, this circumstance may be acci- 

 dental. Crakes, notwithstanding they run so swiftly, 

 do not seem to move far when once they have arrived ; 

 they appear to restrict themselves to the field they 

 have chosen, or, at the furthest, make an excursion into 

 the next and return again, so that you may always 

 know where to go to hear one. 



