CORN CRAKE 



Crex pratensis 



Corn Crake, or Landrail, as it is sometimes called, 

 is a common and pretty generally distributed summer 

 visitor to the British Islands, and breeds in all suitable 

 localities, including the Orkneys, Shetlands, and the Outer 

 Hebrides. 



The Corn Crake prefers a very different style of haunt 

 from its congeners, being especially fond of the dry 

 meadows, pasture-lands, and corn-fields, often arriving in its summer quarters 

 before the grass and clover is tall enough to conceal it; when such is the 

 case it lurks among the ditches, hedges, and gardens until there is sufficient 

 corn in the open fields to afford it shelter. On its first arrival it is very 

 restless and unsettled, and its well-known note may be heard in one field for 

 a whole day, and then not again for perhaps a week or ten days, while it is 

 examining some other field for a nesting-site. It is a very shy, retiring bird, 

 and is very seldom seen at all, except just after the hay has been cut and the 

 clover has not had time to grow up again. At this time it lives in the hedges 

 and corn during the day, coming out into the open in the early morning or 

 at dusk to feed. It is very wary when in the open, and on the slightest alarm 

 hurries back to the nearest cover, or crouches down in some hollow in the 

 ground. It is very difficult to flush the bird, even with the aid of a dog, as 

 it will run along the bottom of a thick hedge, choked with weeds and brambles, 

 at a most surprising rate. If put up, it flies in a heavy, laboured manner, just 

 above the ground, with its long legs hanging down, rather like a Waterhen. 

 and drops into the nearest cover, from which it can seldom be raised a 

 second time. 



The food of the Corn Crake is chiefly composed of snails, slugs, and 

 worms. It is especially fond of small beetles and insects of various kinds, 



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