THE RAIL FAMILY 145 



but all they captured amongst them was one black 

 little chick which they brought to me, to be turned 

 down again directly. 



When the hen is on the point of hatching out, 

 she will allow the mowers to cut round her without 

 moving. Sometimes the poor little birds get cut in 

 two. It is impossible to avoid doing this at times ; 

 even rabbits that squeal, listening to the swish of the 

 scythe a little too long, share the same fate. As a 

 bird for the table, the Corn Crake is highly prized. 

 Eight couples were bagged in Sussex while part- 

 ridge-shooting, out of a field of clover of about two 

 acres. I have never heard of such numbers being 

 procured at any time in Surrey. Why, where they 

 are fairly numerous, these birds should only be 

 procured one or two at a time, with wide intervals 

 between, I do not know. 



The Corn Crake can swim when it likes to do so. 

 There is a circumstance which has forcibly struck 

 my mind many times, but which I have never seen 

 noticed, and that is that the plumage of the Crake 

 does not get saturated with wet. April showers 

 are proverbial, and, if thunder showers, they are 

 very heavy ones ; but directly the rain is over and 

 the sun glints out, you hear " crake-crake-crake," 

 and the birds are searching for food. Small snails 

 crawl up the grass-stems, and hosts of small winged 

 creatures seek for shelter perfectly dry beneath the 

 grass-blades, where diamond drops are glistening in 

 all directions, ready to drop in showers at the least 

 breath of air or slightest movement from below — • 



