﻿i o Birds 



examples have been found in Ireland in a comatose state, concealed 

 in holes in stone walls, also in rabbit burrows. 



During the nesting season it is seldom seen, but frequently 

 heard ; its well-known call, krek, krek, is chiefly uttered during the 

 evening. Of recent years the Corn-Crake has greatly diminished 

 in numbers, and it is now altogether absent from many localities 

 where it was formerly common. The chief haunts are large open 

 grass and clover fields, in which it remains concealed, rarely 

 taking wing. 



The nest is always placed on the ground in a slight hollow 

 among grass, clover, or other thick herbage ; it is carefully built of 

 coarse dead grasses, leaves and bents, neatly interwoven and lined 

 with fine grass. From nine to twelve eggs are usually laid, nine 

 being the normal number, but occasionally as many as fourteen 

 have been found. They vary from dull greyish-white to pale buff, 

 and are spotted and blotched with rust-brown and underlying 

 markings of light purplish-grey. 



The food consists chiefly of insects, especially earwigs and other 

 destructive species, slugs being also eaten. 



The plumage of the upper parts is mostly of an ochreous- 

 brown, the feathers with dark centres ; wings rufous ; throat 

 whitish ; breast greyish-buff ; belly white ; flanks barred with 

 brown and buff ; bill flesh-pink and brown along the culmen ; legs 

 and feet pale flesh-colour; hides amber-brown. The female is 

 rather smaller than the male, and the rufous part of the wings 

 is paler. 



BLACK-HEADED GULL. (PL II.) 



Larus ridibundus. 



The name " black-headed " is unappropriate, as the head of 

 this species is not black, but of a deep chocolate-brown, while other 

 species have pure black heads. This bird, therefore, should be 

 called the Broiun-headed Gull. Throughout the British Islands it 

 is common and generally distributed, both along the coasts and 

 inland. In the spring it resorts to marshes and swamps for nesting 

 purposes, congregating in large colonies called " gulleries." Among 

 the most important in England are Scoulton Mere, Norfolk ; 

 Crockerham Moss, in Lancashire, and Walney Island ; also Brigg, 

 in Lincolnshire, and Aquilate Mere, in Staffordshire. Others 



