COKN-CEAKE 167 



bird is standing. I am satisfied after repeated observation, 

 that this species possesses no peculiar powers of modu- 

 lating its voice after the fashion of a ventriloquist. The 

 note is a loud vociferous rasp, invariably uttered with the 

 greatest amount of power and zest ; moreover, the careful 

 listener will generally hear a loud call followed by a more 

 distant one, and this alternation often continues for some 

 time. This is simply the result of two males in different 

 parts of a meadow, ' craking ' in response, as though con- 

 tending with one another for their right of territory during 

 the breeding-season. The ' crake ' is sounded both when 

 the bird is running and standing, hence the constant altera- 

 tion in the volume, but not in the tone of the voice, as the 

 birds move rapidly through the meadow. 



Sir E. Payne-Gallwey rejects the idea of ventriloquism 

 in the Corn-Crake, and attributes the variations in sound to 

 the alternate calling of two males, while challenging each 

 other, and in the meantime moving from place to place. 



The note is commonly heard towards evening and during 

 the night, usually when the bird is in cover. Mr. Ussher, 

 however, cites a case of a Corn-Crake " standing openly in a 

 field before a house in Donegal while it craked loudly." He 

 also describes another call " like the squeal of a trapped 

 rabbit, and in one case the bird, which produced it in a 

 suppressed tone, was approaching its hatching mate." 



Food. This species lives on insects, small worms, 

 slugs, and vegetable substances, including the seeds of 

 grasses, and clover. Its flesh is very palatable, and in 

 former days was considered a table luxury, for so Dry den 

 says : 



" The rayle which seldom comes but upon rich men's spits." 



Nest. It is quite a mistake to think that the Corn- 

 Crake is exclusively a * dry-land ' bird, breeding only in 

 long meadows, clover, or corn-fields : the large majority do 

 resort to such situations, nevertheless in some cases the nest 

 is built among damp herbage. In the co. Wicklow I have 

 more than once flushed a hatching-bird from off her nest 

 on a small grass-grown hillock, damp and sodden and 

 surrounded by bog-land and reeds. That the Corn-Crake is 

 in some cases partially aquatic like its congeners, in the 

 nesting-season, is borne out by the remarks of Mr. Ussher, 

 namely, that on small islets off Wexford, it " nests annually 

 in rank grass among the colony of Terns," and again 



