which it catches on the grasses. It also eats the seeds of various plants 

 and young grass shoots. Its feeding-time is in the early morning and at 

 dusk, and during that time its well-known note may be heard from the grass 

 meadows, increasing in volume and dying away as the breeze carries the sound 

 away or brings it closer. The note of this bird is very easily imitated by 

 drawing some hard instrument smartly across a strong comb. It is a very 

 harsh and loud ' krake-krake' uttered twice rapidly, and then a short pause, 

 then twice again, and so on ad lib. By imitating the note in this manner, 

 the bird will come quite close if the observer keeps perfectly still. It is chiefly 

 in the evening and early morning that the note of the Corn Crake is heard, 

 but it is repeated occasionally during the day, and often at night. The bird 

 generally utters its call as it stands with head erect, and generally rouses its 

 rival in the next field. 



The Corn Crake pairs shortly after its arrival in this country about the 

 beginning of May, but eggs are not often found before the end of the month 



* ****,** * 



- or early in June. The nest is always on the ground, generally among the 



^ r * * - > *", 



::.,:.'"-"'. meadow-hay or in some patch of nettles or dock-weed in some dry ditch or 

 hollow in the field. It is usually placed in some slight hollow in the ground, 

 often scraped out by the birds themselves, and is a very carefully built 

 structure, the materials being firmly interwoven with each other, and beautifully 

 rounded. It is chiefly composed of sedges, coarse dry grass, withered leaves 

 and grass roots, and is carefully lined with fine dry grass, almost like a larger 

 edition of the Meadow Pipit's nest. 



The number of eggs laid varies usually from nine to twelve, nine being 

 the average clutch. I have twice seen nests which contained fourteen eggs, 

 and once came across one with thirteen. They vary in ground-colour from 

 dirty bluish white to very pale buff, and are blotched or spotted with red- 

 brown surface marks and pale violet grey underlying marks. The spots 

 are not, as a rule, very numerous, and do not cover much of the ground-colour. 

 They are generally pretty evenly distributed over the entire surface of the 

 egg, and not at one end. On some specimens the marks are quite large 

 blotches, while on others they are mere specks. They vary in length from i'5 

 to i '4 inch, and in breadth from ri to ro inch. 



The Corn Crake often begins to sit as soon as the first egg is laid, 

 especially if it is a second nest, the first having been destroyed. 



Young in down are a rich black, and are very beautiful little creatures. 

 I once saw an old Corn Crake with her brood of eleven newly hatched 

 young ones in an open part of a grass field, as I lay concealed on a bank 



2 



