THE RAILS. MOORHEN AND COOT 



541 



heavy-flying, defenceless and destructive 

 insect. Starlings hover and glide after it 

 with swallow-like flight, sparrows also 

 take it on the wing as well as when it is 

 settled, and all the crow birds are its 

 inveterate enemies in every stage of 



parts yellowish brown streaked with 

 black, chestnut wing coverts and buff 

 under parts, and beak somewhat com- 

 pressed, but not elongated as in the Water 

 Rail. It shuns the haunts of man, and 

 rarely shows itself, though when suddenly 



A MOORHEN'S NURSERY. 



Pholograpk by J. T. .\\-7c>/iait, Bcrkhampstead. 



development. Although the Land Rail 

 may feed as well as " crake " by night, 

 it seems to be a pro\'ision of Nature that 

 the perfect insect of the Crane-fly should 

 hatch out from the chrysahs as a tender 

 though ungainly nymph when most of 

 its bird enemies are at roost. 



We had a superabundance of " Daddy- 

 Long-Legs " in the autumn of 1908, and 

 at nine o'clock in the evening of September 

 13, with the help of an acetylene bicycle- 

 lamp, I was astonished at the unusual 

 sight of hundreds of them sticking out 

 over half an inch above the grass — 

 one at least to every square yard — 

 emerging from their pupa cases over the 

 whole surface of our tennis lawn. 



The Corncrake, which comes to us in 

 April and leaves in September, is a little 

 larger than a thrush, with the upper 



69 



and unexpectedly disturbed its heavy, 

 clumsy flight, with dangling legs, gives 

 one an opportunity of observing, and 

 wondering at the difficulty which so 

 sluggish a bird must experience in migrat- 

 ing to and from Africa. It lives and nests 

 on the ground ; the eggs — sometimes as 

 many as ten or twelve — are stone-coloured, 

 spotted and splashed with red, much like 

 small, hght-coloured eggs of the Moorhen. 

 The black, red-pated Moorhen, with 

 large ohve green legs, and orange and 

 scarlet garters, is not only tht- most 

 common, but also the most conhding of 

 our marsh and water birds. It is con- 

 tented with any inland pond, however 

 small the dimensions, for breeding ]nir- 

 poses,and in winter may easily be tentpted, 

 by gradual feeding up, to frequent the 

 neighbourhood of houses. Though gener- 



