THE LAND-RAIL. 313 



and clover are also resorted to, so soon after the bird's arrival 

 as they will afford shelter. Mr. Poole has heard it call early 

 in the season from fields of furze in the county of Wexford, 

 which were better cover at the time than the meadows, and were 

 probably selected on that account. 



Everywhere that we go in this island in the months of May, 

 June, and early in July * (irrespective of the vicinity of rivers, 

 which are considered to influence its distribution in Great Britain), 

 except to the mountain top, or to stony and heath-covered tracts, 

 the call of the corncrake is heard, not only at its favourite 

 times, in the evening and during the night, but throughout the 

 day.f From its frequenting the meadows or pastures nearest 

 towns, and even those within them — as the grounds of the Royal 

 Academical Institution, Belfast — the corncrake makes itself heard 

 through the night over a great portion of the towns in Ire- 

 land. Owing to its late period of breeding, this bird suffers 

 sadly during the mowing of our meadows, about which time it 

 is generally engaged in incubation. Should it not fall a victim to 

 the mower by the loss of its head, the nest being laid bare is 

 deserted, or if the young have recently "come out," they are 

 often either maimed or destroyed by the scythe. Bewick, in one of 

 the inimitable tail-pieces to his ' British Birds/ represents the 

 catastrophe first alluded to. J Fortunately the species is very 



* In 1832, an ornithological friend remarked respecting the neighbourhood of 

 Belfast, that after the 13th of July he rarely heard them call at night. On the 25th 

 of that month, I listened to one in 1845, as I did to single birds on the nights of 

 the 28th and 29th in 1848, in different districts. The 18th of July has been noted 

 as the latest time at which they called about Killaloe. Mr. Hyndman heard them during 

 three days in the first week of August 1845, which he spent on Tory Island, off the 

 county of Donegal. They are stated to visit that island annually. 



I was told when in the island of Islay (Scotland) that they are numerous there 

 every summer. 



f A night watchman in a bleach-green near Belfast, considers that for some time 

 after arrival the birds call by night before they do so by day, and consequently that he 

 is aware of their presence before most other persons — on " nights which are close, 

 and some warming rain," they first make themselves known. Sir Win. Jardine 

 states, that "the crake is uttered by the bird when running, but more frequently when 

 seated on some stone or clod." — 'Brit. Birds,' vol. iii. p. 332. Such birds as have 

 come under my own notice when calling, were stationary, their necks erect and at full 

 stretch during the time. 



X Viguette to the Dotterel, p. 328, in edit, of 1821. 



