THE CORNCRAKE, OR LANDRAIL. 585 



than in the water itself. The birds gather many of them, and fasten them at the lieight of 

 two or three feet, and there the nest is placed. It is composed of the most delicate rushes, 

 whether green or withered, and is quite as substantial as that of the connnon Gallinule, flattish, 

 having an internal diameter of eight or ten inches, while the entire breadth is about fif- 

 teen. The eggs, which are from five to seven, rarely more, are very similar to those of 

 the common Gallinule, being of a light grayish-yellow, spotted with blackish-brown. The 

 young are at first quite black, and covered with douTi. They are fully fledged by the 

 first of June, when, as I have said, they and their parents remove to the wet savannas in 

 the neighborhood. 



"Tile jerking motions of the tail of this bird, whenever it is disturbed, or attracted by 

 any remarkable object, are very quick, and so often repeated as to have a curious appearance. 

 It runs with great speed, and dives with equal address, often moving oft' under water with 

 nothing but the bill above. Tlie lightness and ease with which it walks on the floating plants 

 are surprising, for in proceeding they scarcely produce any perceptible disturbance of the 

 water. When swimming in full security, they move buoyantly and gracefully, throwing the 

 head forward at every propelling motion of the feet. The flight of this species is less swift 

 than that of the common Gallinule, or of the Rails, unless when it is travelling far, when it 

 flies high, and advances in a direct course by continued flappings ; but wlien it is in its breed- 

 ing or feeding grounds, its flight is slow and short, seldom exceeding thirty or forty yards, 

 and with the legs hanging down, and it alights among the herbage with its wings spread 

 upwards, in the manner of the Rails. It often alights on the low branches of trees and bushes 

 growing over the water, and walks lightly and gracefully over them. 



"It is seldom that more than one Purple Gallinule is shot at a time, unless in the begin- 

 ning of the love-season, when the male and female are apt to swim or walk close together. 

 The male at this period is said to be able to inflate the frontal plate while strutting, but I have 

 never been fortunate enough to observe this. 



"The Purple Gallinule not unfrequently alights on ships at sea. While at the Island of 

 Galveston, I was offered several live individuals, by the officers of the Boston frigate, which 

 they had caught on board. My friend, John Bachman, once received three specimens that 

 had been caught three hundred miles from land, one of them having come through the cabin 

 window. He also obtained from the Hon. Mr. Poinset a fine specimen caught on board, on the 

 Santee River, in South Carolina, in May. It is easily kept alive, if fed with bread soaked in 

 milk ; and on this food I have known several that remained in good health for years. In 

 Louisiana, where it is called Rale Bleu, its flesh is not held in much estimation, but is used 

 by the negroes for making gombo. 



' ' My friend Bachman considers this species as rather scarce in South Carolina and Georgia, 

 but states that it breeds there, as he has occasionally observed ])airs on the head- waters or j^re- 

 serves of rice plantations during summer, but never met with any in winter. The extreme 

 limit of its range eastward is the neighl)orhood of Boston, where a few individuals have been 

 procured." 



The Florida Gallinule {Galliinda galeata) is a more sober-colored bird, inhabiting 

 about the same regions as the preceding. 



The Corncrake {Crex pratensis) is occasionally seen m America, and is therefore 

 enumerated in the list of North American birds. 



The weU-known Corncrake, or Landrail, is common in almost every part of Europe, 

 its rough, grating call being heard wherever the hay -grass is long enough to hide the utterer. 



The bird runs with wonderful speed through the tall grass, and its cry may be heard now 

 close at hand, now in the distance, now right, and now left, without any other indication of 

 the bird' s whereabouts ; for so deftly does it thread the grass-stems that not a shaken blade 

 indicates its presence, and it is so wary that it keeps itself well hidden among the thick 

 herbage. The cry of the Corncrake may be exactly imitated by drawing a quill or a piece of 



Vol. n.-74. 



