NOTES AND QUERIES. 115 



has now lasted for a very long time. My notes on the former and 

 present status of the Corn-Crake in Oxfordshire will be found in 

 ' The Zoologist' for 1903, p. 451, and I do not think the state of 

 affairs has altered much or at all since then. We hear of one 

 sometimes, but may go through a summer without hearing the bird's 

 delightful craking. It is probably less rare in the wide meadows 

 bordering the upper Isis than elsewhere in the county. Last sum- 

 mer, however, I had a treat. A Corn-Crake established itself in a 

 clover-field on the east side of this village, where one had not been 

 heard for years, and I enjoyed the rare pleasure (formerly a common 

 one) of hearing the Corn-Crake's call at night from the house. I had 

 not done so since 1904. The bird was seen when the clover was cut 

 in the second week in July, but no nest was found, although I offered 

 a reward for a report of it if discovered. We still get passing 

 migrants in autumn, and if there are any standing crops in the first 

 half of September a fair number of them get shot. This year I shot 

 tv/o on the 3rd, and another was killed in standing barley and not 

 recovered. I saw another shot on the 10th. There were such great 

 breadths of barley and beans standing on the 3rd, and these were 

 beaten so loosely, that it is a wonder any Land-Eails were flushed. 

 I wonder what the proportion of birds was that were not put up, for 

 the Land-Eail is a hard bird to flush from heavy cover. I saw one 

 bird in September which had pitched in a bit of barley, too badly 

 " laid" for the machine to cut it, run out of this, and make its way 

 in a crouching attitude over the rest of the field, hiding under one of 

 the barley-sheaves, w4iich lay on the ground, from time to time. This 

 is only the second time, as far as I remember, that I have seen a live 

 Corn-Crake on the ground in autumn. 



There is evidence that the Wryneck was common in Oxfordshire 

 at one time, and it was certainly well enough known to be called by 

 its common name of " Cuckoo's Mate," as well as by another local 

 name. But it has been almost a rare bird for many years, and we do 

 not look for its regular arrival in spring. In 1903 — a very wet year 

 — it looked as if the Wryneck was coming back to us. There was a 

 bird on the outskirts of the village during the first week in May, and 

 on the 9th I made a note of the fact that we had three, if not four, 

 about. I left home for a month three days later, and I never saw or 

 heard any more of them. The next year I heard one and saw a pair 

 at the end of April. Since that date I have only noticed occasional 

 birds. The Nuthatch is another bird which has decreased greatly of 

 late years. It used to be quite common here, and its sweet whistling 

 notes were a familiar sound in the early part of the year. It is not 



