THE RAIL FAMILY 143 



" I'm gone," my old friend said, and so he would 

 have been if he had not clutched hold of a bough, 

 and even then he was up to his breast in the quake. 

 The pair of us were Crake-hunting. 



The nest of the Corn Crake is formed in some 

 slight hollow. It is a very simple affair, lined with 

 a few grass-straws. The eggs, which number from 

 eight to twelve, are greyish-yellow in ground-colour, 

 dotted, patched, and blotched with brownish-red or 

 umber, and light purplish-grey. The young birds 

 are quaint-looking little things, covered with blackish 

 down. Directly they are hatched they leave the 

 nest and run about. 



If you are walking through fields where the grass 

 is growing long for hay, you may hear " crake, crake, 

 crake-crake-crake." These sounds proceed from 

 the Corn Crake, far better known as the Land-rail. 

 In some districts it goes by the name of Daker-hen, 

 and is also locally known as Land-hen. This bird 

 is a migrant, being heard frequently, although very 

 seldom seen, in the southern counties about the 

 latter end of April. Its being so seldom seen may 

 be owing to the luxuriant grass crops and other 

 cover suitable to it. Although numbers are about 

 in all directions, it is very rarely that one is shot or 

 captured. 



I have seen more Water-rails that had been shot 

 than Land-rails. In my own immediate neighbour- 

 hood, the Corn Crake rarely reaches the hands of 

 the bird-preserver. It has been stated that this 

 bird can be drawn close up by imitating its cry, 



