THfc CORNCRAKE. 373 



are dull red brown ; and the latter, which are long and 

 strong, are defended both in the front and the rear by 

 mailed plates. The front toes are long, divided from 

 each other the whole length, but marginated, so that 

 while the bird can run rapidly among the rough herb- 

 age, it does not sink deep in the soft ground. The 

 hind toes are smaller, and thus, though the bird can 

 alight on a bough, it is not adapted for perching during 

 the night, but lodges upon the ground. The nest is 

 always upon the ground, and is a very simple structure, 

 merely a little hollow lined with dry grass. The 

 eggs vary, but they are rather numerous than otherwise, 

 being sometimes as many as fifteen, and generally not less 

 than a dozen. These birds have not a very great num- 

 ber of enemies, as birds of prey cannot find them out 

 in their covers ; and weasels, polecats, and other de- 

 predators in such places as those frequented by crakes, 

 do not range the extended fields of thick grass and 

 corn ; but their actual increase is not in proportion .to 

 the number of their broods, and therefore there is rea- 

 son to believe that many of the eggs are destroyed by 

 the June rains, more especially as the birds are most 

 abundant in low and flat fields, that are apt to be par- 

 tially flooded by the mere stagnation of the water when 

 those rains are heavy. When once the eggs are 

 hatched, the brood are comparatively safe, even from 

 the scythe of the mower, which often commits sad 

 havoc among skylarks and other birds that build in 

 hay-fields, and continue longer in the nest. The eggs 

 are of a dull white colour with rusty spots ; and the 

 young, in their first plumage, are spotted with white. 

 The crake has a strong muscular gizzard, like poultry 

 2 K 



