WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 225 



The mowers cutting these meadows find the eggs 

 the nest being on the ground and bring them to the 

 farmstead, both as a curiosity and to be eaten, some 

 thinking them equal to plovers' eggs. Though you 

 may follow the sound " Crake, crake ! " in the grass 

 for hours at a time, and sometimes get so near as to 

 throw your walking-stick at a bunch of grass, you 

 will never see the bird ; and nothing, neither stick nor 

 stone, will make it rise. Yet it is easy to shoot, as I 

 found, in one particular way. The trick is to drive it 

 into a hedge. Two persons and a spaniel well in 

 hand walk towards the " Crake, crake ! " keeping some 

 distance apart. The bird at first runs straight away ; 

 then, finding himself still pursued, tries to dodge 

 back, but finds the line extended. He then takes 

 refuge in silence, and endeavours to slip past unseen 

 and unheard ; but the spaniel's power of scent baffles 

 that. At last he makes for the hedge, when one per- 

 son immediately goes on the other side, and the 

 spaniel beats up it. The bird is now surrounded and 

 cannot escape, and, as the dog comes close upon him, 

 is compelled to rise and fly. As he rises, his flight at 

 first somewhat resembles the partridge's, but it is 

 slower and heavier, and he can be shot with the 

 greatest ease. But if not fired at, after he has got 

 well on the wing, the flight becomes much stronger, 

 and it is evident that he is capable of a long voyage. 



Sometimes, by patience and skilfully anticipating 

 his zigzag motions in the grass, the crake may be 

 driven to the hedge without a dog. He will then, 



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