In Farm and Garden. 177 



the hedge. Rarely indeed is he flushed even by the 

 aid of dogs; we have known him perch on the top 

 of a thick low hedge when put up by a collie. He 

 flies slowly and in a somewhat laboured way, with 

 his long legs dangling down, and all his efforts seem 

 directed into reaching cover of some kind. The hay 

 harvest in July is a cause of much disturbance to 

 the Corncrake. As the mowers or the more modern 

 mowing-machine lay swathe after swathe of tall 

 grass its haunts become more and more restricted ; 

 the brooding Crake at last slips quietly off her nest 

 alarmed at the approaching scythes or rattle of the 

 machine, until at last her home with its numerous 

 eggs is left bare and desolate. We have known her 

 to remove her eggs in the course of a night and 

 place them amongst still standing grass, but the end 

 eventually was just the same. Probably this destruc- 

 tion of nests during hay harvest is responsible for 

 the diminishing numbers of this species in not a few 

 districts. But if the cutting of the grass brings ruin 

 to some birds it also brings an abundance of food 

 to others. These are the Thrushes and Starlings that 

 may then be seen on the shorn fields busily in quest 

 of snails and worms. The Corncrake calls no 

 longer; perhaps the old birds retire to the clover, 

 the standing corn, or even to the turnip and potato 

 fields, and about these places they skulk for the re- 

 mainder of their stay, and then return broodless to 



(M618) M 



