178 GRALLATORES. CREX. CRAKE. 



tion (which the observations I have made corroborate), that 

 the Welsh and Irish shores are the first upon which these 

 birds land, as being in the direct line of their polar migra- 

 tion from Northern Africa and the southern parts of Europe, 

 and that, from the extent of their journey, they arrive ex- 

 hausted and reduced, but are recruited by a short residence, 

 or during the time spent in a gradual passage to their dif- 

 ferent places of resort. The Crake runs very swiftly, thread- 

 ing through the closest grass with extraordinary ease, and, 

 unless sorely pressed, or from a failure of cover, is very un- 

 willing to seek safety in flight. To succeed in flushing it 

 requires the aid of a dog trained to the sport, and taught 

 either to follow the Trail with great quickness, or to make 

 a rapid circuit and get in advance of the bird. It flies low, 

 and in a heavy wavering manner, with the feet hanging down, 

 and seldom to any distance at a time. It breeds in meadows, 

 or in the rough herbage of moist thickets, and sometimes in 

 Nest, &c. standing corn, if near to water. The nest is composed of 

 grass and other dried plants, a slight hole being first made 

 in the ground, and the eggs, in number from ten to fourteen, 

 are of a yellowish-white, slightly tinged with pink, and 

 spotted irregularly with reddish-brown, in size nearly equal 

 to those of the partridge, but of a more oblong shape. The 

 young, when excluded, quit the nest, and are then covered 

 with a black hairy down, which gives place by degrees to the 

 usual plumage, and in less than six weeks they are able to 

 fly. When uttering its cry, the neck of the Crake is stretched 

 perpendicularly upwards, and the note is varied, seeming to 

 a listener to come from different distances, and producing thus 

 Food, an effect similar to ventriloquism. It feeds on worms, slugs, 

 and insects, with vegetables and seeds. I have kept this 

 bird in confinement in apparent good health, on a diet of 

 earth-worms, and bread steeped in milk. In this species a 

 few of the frontal feathers possess the hard and horny tip 

 that distinguishes the Rails; but this is not found in the 

 others of the genus. 



