92 RRITISH BIRDS, THEIR EGGS AND NESTS. 



skulk amid taller herbage, or under the shrubs of a raised bed, or 

 beneath a rhododendron bush. A minute after it would be seen 

 with its head and whole body erect, and the neck so out-stretched 

 that if the bird had been hung up by its head it could not have 

 been much more elongated. This was the invariable position or 

 attitude assumed when interchanging looks with the occupants of 

 the window. My own impression was that these journeys or 

 excursions (which I knew extended into the grass-field beyond the 

 garden, and into a field over the road at the back of the plantation) 

 were simply made for the purpose of inspection, and with a view 

 to the selection of a place for nesting and that, pending- this in- 

 teresting investigation, the fir trees and herbage beneath afforded 

 an ample covert. As far as I could ascertain, the place actually 

 selected by them for the purpose was in the field a corn-field 

 just beyond that which lay adjacent to the garden. The Corn 

 Crake makes a loose nest of dry herbage and stalks and grass; 

 and I think almost always among growing herbage grass, 

 clover, or corn. The hen lays seven or eight eggs, some- 

 times even ten, and sits very close upon them. They are whitish 

 in ground, suffused with a reddish tinge, and spotted and speckled 

 with brownish-red and purplish-grey. Fig. 4, plate IX. 



219. SPOTTED CRAKE (Crex porzana). 

 A summer visitor, as the Land Rail is, to our shores. It is 

 rare, however, compared with the Land Rail, and with more 

 predilection for the vicinity of water. Like all the other Rails it 

 conceals itself very closely, and from the form of its body and 

 power of leg runs with great speed and equal facility, even 

 among what seems to be and is very thick covert. It is known 

 to breed in Norfolk and in Cambridgeshire, and is believed to do 

 so in other localities as well. The nest, made on the ground in 

 wet marshes, is "formed on the outside," says Mr. Yarrell, 

 " with coarse aquatic plants, lined with finer materials within." 

 From seven to ten eggs appears to be the number laid, and they 

 vary very much in their ground-colour, between a pale brownish- 

 dun and a slightly yellow-white, the spots or blotches being of a 

 reddish brown of some intensity. Fig. 5, plate IX. 



220. LITTLE CRAKE (Crex pusilla). 

 Olivaceous Gallinule, Little Gallinule. Strictly speaking, still 

 a rare bird in this country. 



221. BAILLON'S CRAKE (r*z; Saillonii). 

 More rare than the last, and, perhaps, occasionally confused 

 with it. 



222. WATER RAIL (Rallus aquations). 

 Bilcock, Skiddycock, Runner, Brook-runner, Velvet-runner 



