314 rallid^;. 



prolific, laying not unfrequently about a dozen of eggs : the young 

 can run nimbly so soon as they burst the shell. 



It is remarked by Sir Win. Jardine respecting this rail, that — 

 " In some parts it has decreased and without apparent cause ; in 

 the vale of the Annan in the south of Scotland, ten years since, 

 the bird was extremely common, its note being heard in almost 

 every alternate field; at the present time it may almost be ac- 

 counted rare, during last summer (1841) only one or two pairs 

 being heard within a stretch of several miles/' — ' Brit. Birds/ 

 vol. iii. p. 331. In the north of Ireland, the land-rail became 

 very much scarcer about the same time as the partridge (see 

 p. 58), and continued so for fully fifteen years. They were 

 never more scarce than in 1843, but within the last very few 

 summers they have, like that species, rapidly increased. At no 

 period have I heard them more plentiful (for we hear rather than 

 see the corncrake) than in the summer of 1848, about Cultra, on 

 the borders of Belfast Bay. They were also numerous that 

 season in various parts of Down and Antrim ; and in 1849 were 

 equally abundant. Their scarcity for a long period seemed the 

 more remarkable, as they had become, around Belfast, less an 

 object of pursuit by sportsmen, than formerly. Their having ever 

 been so, was unpopular, the bird being a general favourite, and 

 viewed as one of the innocent " guests of summer," whose note 

 is as well known as that of the cuckoo, and much more frequently 

 heard. From its slow and slovenly mode of flight also, the corn- 

 crake is believed to fall too easy a sacrifice to the gun. So unwill- 

 ing is this bird to take wing, that I have frequently seen it when 

 running caught on the ground by dogs. The power of flight it 

 can exert is, however, considerable when called forth by the pursuit 

 of the peregrine falcon, as alluded to in the history of that bird. 



For a short time only after arrival can the land-rail be followed 

 by the sportsman without injury to the meadows or crops which 

 it frequents. He does not again meet with it until the 20th of 

 September, the first day of partridge-shooting in Ireland. So few 

 are then seen, at least in the north, compared with the num- 

 bers in spring before they have bred, that the greater portion 



