316 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



throughout the southern half of Essex. The hterature of natural 

 history abounds with notes relating to this state of affairs, but I 

 shall content myself by saying that the contributors to the British 

 Ornithologists' Union Eeport on Migration for the year 1907 are 

 unable to record the Corn-Crake for Hants, Sussex, Middlesex, Bucks, 

 Herts, Essex, and Suffolk — counties where in former years the bird 

 was well known and even abundant. This deplorable change — 

 although, indeed, some writers have commented as past victims of 

 the sleep-disturbing voice of the bird, and have not mourned its 

 passing — appears to date from about 1850, although the diminution 

 was not generally noticed until a' decade later. This alteration in 

 the distribution of the bird can be, I think, ascribed to the change in 

 agricultural methods that marked the early half of last century. I 

 have no personal recollection of hearing a Corn-Crake actually in a 

 corn-field. I have seen them driven out of the stuff at harvest time, 

 but it has not been my experience to notice one in the breeding 

 season in association with such a flora. I have met with them in 

 marshes and in fields of rye, but not in wheat, barley, or oats. In 

 many parts of the North of England "Corn-Crake" is not the 

 native name, and if Rail or Land-Rail is not used one generally hears 

 the creature spoken of as "Grass Crake" (with the puzzling pro- 

 nunciation Grey Shrake), "Grass Drake," or " Draker Hen"; and 

 Mitchell gives the additional " Daker Hen " and " Draken Hen " for 

 parts of Lancashire. Here the bird is a true "Grass" Crake, and 

 not a "Corn " Crake, and I fancy we have in these names a hint at a 

 solution of the problem. 



If I have read the local ornithologists aright, the Corn-Crake 

 formerly bred in the corn-fields of the southern counties. It does 

 not do so now, because a modern corn-field is in many ways unfitted 

 to be the home of breeding Corn-Crakes. Those who have watched 

 or otherwise observed the quick and restless movements of the male 

 bird can easily imagine its discomfort in a field lined w^ith barriers of 

 corn-stalks. To a man the corn-field of to-day may appear a safe 

 jungle, but a child or a Weasel knows that it is really as transparent 

 as a hop-garden. The Corn-Crake, above most birds, requires secrecy, 

 and in a drilled corn-field this is not available. The nest could never 

 be hidden, and the eggs or even the sitting bird would soon fall the 

 prey of Stoat, Weasel, Rat, Hedgehog, Jay, or Crow. Under the 

 old conditions of broadcast sowing the corn-field would be a real 

 sanctuary, but I am unable to say of my own experience if the bird 

 does actually nest in fields of corn where the drill has not been used, 



