MAY 117 



that the corncrake 'is very ready to seek safety in 

 flight in North Uist. It does not seem to do so in 

 the mainland of Scotland.' l 



Of one peculiar trait in the behaviour of the corn- 

 crake I cannot speak from personal observation, though 

 it is well authenticated on the testimony of others. If 

 one is caught alive and uninjured, it will feign death in 

 the same manner as some insects, especially beetles, are 

 well known to do, and has been reported of other birds 

 of the Crake family. Whether this be the automatic 

 effect of syncope caused by fear (as I think more 

 probable) or a voluntary device to deceive the captor, 

 remains matter for speculation. 



XX 



Some interesting correspondence has appeared in 



Nature of late (1919) on the belief that has 



\, . . , , . Fascination? 



been long and widely entertained that certain 



snakes have the faculty of fascinating or hypnotising their 

 prey, especially birds, to facilitate capture. The snakes 

 of Great Britain are too small in size and too elusive 

 in habit to afford opportunity for scrutinising their 

 methods of capture ; but a little scene which I witnessed 

 from my library window on a May morning in 1917 

 was of a nature that might suggest fascination exercised 

 by a beast of prey upon a bird. A male blackbird was 

 sitting on the open lawn before my house ; a stoat was 

 racing round and round the bird at high speed, now 

 rolling itself into a ball, racing again, then leaping 

 1 The Scottish Naturalist for January-February, 1919, p. 18. 



