220 Wild Life in a Southern County. 
uttering the call continuously, the illusion disappears, 
and there is no more difficulty in approximately fixing 
its position than that of any other bird. One summer 
a crake chose a spot on the ‘shore’ of the ditch of the 
highway hedge, not forty yards from the orchard ha- 
ha. There was a thick growth of tall grass, clogweed, 
and other plants just there, and some of the bushes 
pushed out over the sward. The nest was placed 
close to the ditch (not in it), and the noise the crakes 
made was something astonishing. ‘Crake, crake, 
crake!’ resounded the moment it was light—and it 
is light early at that season: ‘Crake, crake, crake!’ 
all the morning ; the sound now and then, if the bird 
moved a few yards nearer, echoing back from some 
of the buildings. There was, or seemed to be, a slight 
cessation in the middle of the day, but towards evening 
it recommenced, and continued without cessation till 
quite dark. This lasted for some weeks: it chanced 
that the meadow was mown late, so that the birds 
were undisturbed. Why so apparently timid a bird 
should choose a spot near a dwelling is not easy to 
understand. 
The crakes, however, when thus localized deceived 
no one by their supposed ventriloquial powers ; there- 
fore it seems clear that the deception is caused by 
their rapid changes of position. The mouse in like 
manner often gives an impression that it must be in 
one spot when it is really a yard away, the shrill 
squeak, as it were, left behind it. It is not easy 
