300 



FIELD NOTES. 



BIRDS. 



The Corncrake Puzzle. — With regard to Mr. Booth's 

 note on the Corncrake, can it be that the species has altered 

 its habits as regards voice ? The continual craking must 

 attract its enemies, mammalian and avine, and the modern 

 hay-cutting machines must disturb birds at nesting time 

 much more than in the former centuries, and it seems therefore 

 possible that the ' instinct of self-preservation ' has suggested 

 to these birds to alter their behaviour. If so, perhaps it is as 

 well ! When living in Herefordshire in 1902, a nest was found 

 just at hatching-out stage, in a field at Burghill, one egg being 

 cut into by the scythe, and although I and others used to pass 

 along a path through the field it was never suspected that a 

 pair of Corncrakes was nesting so close. Although left, both 

 birds deserted the nest. — Fred. D. Welch, M.R.C.S., Hartley, 

 Kent. 



The Corncrake Puzzle. — Mr. Booth's note was of ex- 

 treme interest, and bearing upon it and Mr. Welch's query, 

 it may not be uninteresting to record the behaviour of a pair 

 of birds at Harrogate, this season. The birds took up their 

 abode in a meadow, about two hundred yards north of my 

 house, were first heard on the 14th May, and for about a week 

 the craking was continuous. After a week had elapsed the 

 bird was seldom heard, only once or twice, when I wandered 

 about on the outside edges of the meadow and apparently un- 

 expectedly approached one, when it appeared to give, to me, a 

 few warning ' crakes.' Owing to an acute attack of sciatica, 

 I have been unable to walk much this summer, and consequently 

 paid more attention to these birds than I probably otherwise 

 should have done. As a result of my observations, I came to 

 the conclusion that when nesting commenced, the calling 

 practically ceased. From the middle of June to the middle of 

 July I did not hear the birds at all, though constantly walking 

 round the field ; I did not attempt to seek the nest, except 

 on the outskirts. I therefore thought that, for some reason or 

 other, the birds had left the neighbourhood, but on July i6th, 

 the ' craking ' re-commenced, but in a rough field at the back 

 of my house, direct east. Subsequent investigation showed that 

 a brood had been hatched in the first field, and they were no 

 doubt taken, before any signs of grass-cutting, into the other 

 field. To reach there they had to be taken across a brook 

 and three fields, this was quite evidently the case, as there 

 had been no signs of the birds in this field previous to July i6th. 

 The ' craking ' continued for about a fortnight and then ceased 

 altogether, and I have not since heard them. This behaviour 

 is quite at variance with the experience I have previously 



Naturalist, 



