THE CORNCRAKE. 



369 



casualties to which the young of this species are ex- 

 posed on their autumnal excursions, (long or short) 

 may be one of the reasons why, with the same number 

 in brood yearly, and fewer chances against them in 

 any other way, they do not multiply faster than the 

 wheatears. 



The chats, when beating about in the places which 

 they inhabit, whether permanently or periodically, 

 never fligh high, enter the woods, or are much seen 

 traversing over the tall herbage of the cultivated fields. 

 They do not, indeed, care for frequenting tall herbage 

 of any kind, though they perch upon the bushes on 

 the commons and the more remote hedges. But still 

 there is a bird, which comes from other lands to put 

 the husbandman in mind that it is the summer; a bird, 

 which if not quite so melodious in its voice, is yet as 

 singular in its habits, as any bird of the season. That 

 bird is- 



THE CORN-CRAKE. 



