ACROSS THE OPEN FIELDS AND DOWNS. 83 



Our last characteristic bird of the fields is the 

 LAND- RAIL (Crex pratensis], also widely known \videi y 

 by the name of CORN CRAKE. No bird is more dl 

 readily identified, the loud, harsh, far-sounding 

 double note of crake-crake, crake-crake, rendering 

 the slightest chance of confusion impossible. 

 This note makes the fields ring again, especially 

 at night, from the date of the bird's arrival here 

 in April until near the middle of August. No 

 bird that frequents the fields is so skulking in its 

 habits as the Land-Rail, and nine times out of 

 ten its note is the only sign of its presence. 

 Sometimes, however especially during the earlier 

 months of its stay it may be seen in the open, 

 running down the hedge-sides, or crossing the 

 bare pastures from one meadow to another, or 

 even on the country highways between the 

 cornfields. Just after its arrival, the Land- Rail 

 wanders about a good deal from farm to farm ; 

 but as soon as it has paired and selected a 

 nesting-ground it becomes much more sedentary, 

 seldom straying beyond a field or so away. The 

 remarkable speed at which this bird can run 

 through the grass has given rise to the idea 

 that the Land-Rail is a ventriloquist, its voice 

 sounding now here, now there, in rapid sequence. 

 This bird is ever flushed with difficulty, and when 

 hard pressed will make for the hedges, and skulk 

 in some nook until all danger has passed. Its 

 food is composed of worms, slugs, insects, larvae, 

 tender shoots of herbage, and seeds of grasses. 

 As soon as the grass is sufficiently high and thick, 

 the Land- Rail begins to breed. Its nest is always 

 on the ground in the open fields, amongst the 

 clover, the mowing grass, and less frequently the 



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