370 SUMMER. 



No bird can have a name more expressive of its cry 

 than the crake, or daker-hen, (rallus crex ;) for its note, 

 which is incessant at the times and in the places 

 alluded to, is nothing but a repetition of the word 

 " crake ;" and that monotonous and harsh cry is al- 

 most all that even those by whom it is heard know re- 

 specting it, for no bird, not even the jay in the coppice, 

 is more difficult to be seen, as it is always among tall 

 herbage, runs with great rapidity, and can be very sel- 

 dom made to take the wing. In Britain, it is strictly 

 a summer bird, arriving in the southern parts of the 

 island about the first of May, and in the northern 

 parts about the middle of that month. Unlike some 

 of the other birds, it gives no sign either of its coming 

 or its departure ; but steals into the tall corn or grass, 

 utters its love note there for a few days, then continues 

 its " crake " for a longer period, and by the time that 

 the fields begin to be cleared it is gone, in the same 

 stealthy manner as it came. While it is in the country, 

 it is with great difficulty that it can be either captured 

 or seen ; and it has a ventriloquism in its note, by 

 which one is a great deal deceived as to the place in 

 which it really is. We have followed it many a weary 

 and ineffectual chace ; and when it called as if only a 

 yard or two distant, stopped its cry as we advanced, 

 and thus made us sure of seeing it, as not a stalk of 

 the corn moved, we have heard it break out again 

 right in the rear, and apparently at a considerable dis- 

 tance. We have heard it also on one side, apparently a 

 good many yards off, but before we could take more 

 than a step or two in the direction of the sound, the 

 crake was apparently as far distant on the other side. 



