166 



from Europe, or Barbary. An example has even been 

 recorded from New South Wales" (Eec. Austral. Mus. ii, 

 p. 82). _ 



It is hardly less surprising that anyone who has ever 

 taken the trouble to carefully examine and to weigh a dead 

 Corn-Crake can possibly doubt its power of flight. Com- 

 pared, for instance, with that of many other migratory 

 species, we find that its body is proportionately lighter in 

 weight, its pinions, though not long and pointed, are of 

 considerable breadth and strength, while its narrow com- 

 pressed neck and body offer little resistance to the velocity 

 of its flight. 



FIG. 20. HEAD OF CORN-CRAKE. 11 Nat. size. 



Voice. I shall not attempt to describe in syllables the 

 familiar rasping call-note of the male Corn-Crake. It can 

 be readily reproduced by drawing a stick across the teeth 

 of a comb. By this form of mimicry the bird may be 

 gradually attracted to within a few yards, and the performer 

 who keeps still and lies low in a ditch will be amused by 

 watching how a suspicious old male will tread cautiously 

 through the grass until he comes into full view at the edge 

 of the meadow. Here he may be seen commencing to 

 1 crake ' defiantly in answer to his supposed rival. But I 

 have found from experience that the artificial voice will 

 carry much further if, instead of using a stick and a comb, 

 the edge of a flat dry bone (e.g., a piece of a rib of an ox), 

 about six inches in length, is passed over the edge of 

 another bone which has been notched and toothed like a 

 saw. By such a contrivance I have coaxed a Corn-Crake 

 from one end of a large field to another. The voice is 

 exceedingly powerful, and when heard close at hand, seems 

 by its vibrations almost to shake the ground on which the 



