COKN-CKAKE 165 



long grass, it flits off in an awkward manner with its legs 

 dangling down, only to alight in the same or an adjoining 

 meadow ; for this bird is nocturnal in its habits, and when 

 awakened by the sudden approach of a dog, finding no 

 chance of escape by running and hiding (which all Crakes 

 prefer), terrified, it shoots up vertically through the long 

 grass, dangling its legs parallel to the grass-stems so as not 

 to impede its flight. 1 I attribute its very short flight under 

 these circumstances to sensitiveness to daylight, for I have 

 noted that when hunting Corn-Crakes in the summer with 

 dogs, if the sun be shining very brightly, they rise on the 

 wing only to drop again immediately. 



But I have observed the flight of this species when 

 migrating, to be very different. For instance, at daybreak 

 on August 13th, 1890, when steaming from Belfast to 

 Dublin and about ten miles off the coast of the co. Down, 

 I observed a Corn-Crake flying over the sea. As it neared 

 our steamer it descended in its flight and passed us in a 

 rather zig-zag manner and with great velocity. At one 

 time it came within fifteen yards of the steamer flying 

 almost on a level with the deck. The legs were certainly 

 not dangling down, and as far as I could ascertain they 

 were stretched out behind. At night, these birds have 

 been observed by hundreds round lighthouses and light- 

 ships, and the "repeated occurrence of the Corn-Crake 

 several miles from shore killed striking against lanterns 

 between 100 and 200 feet above the sea-level must satisfy 

 the most sceptical that this species can fly at a high level 

 with great power and velocity." 2 But it is not surprising 

 that this bird should be endowed with great and sus- 

 taining powers of flight: it is not only an essentially 

 migratory species, but one which at times ventures upon 

 vast peregrinations across the Oceans. Thus Professor 

 Newton states that " in the course of its wanderings 

 it has now been known to reach the coast of Greenland, 

 and several times that of North America, to say nothing of 

 Bermuda, in every instance we may believe as a straggler 



1 Many other nocturnal birds when startled in the daytime from their 

 sleeping-quarters take wing in quite a different manner from their 

 ordinary evening flight. Witness the confused bustling flight of a Wood- 

 cock, or even of an Owl, disturbed in the daytime, compared with the 

 buoyant slow-flapping evening flight. 



2 Barrington and More, Migration Keports, 1886, p. 5. 



