THE LANDRAIL OR CORNCRAKE. 295 



all the rocky islets on the west coast, extending 

 to Haskeir Rocks, the Monach Islands, and St. 

 Kilda. It will, in fact, take up its abode and 

 rear its young on such places as are almost 

 exclusively frequented by birds dependent on 

 the sea for their daily subsistence, all that 

 can be looked upon as an attraction being 

 but an occasional patch of grass and a moist 

 hollow, to remind it of the distant meadow 

 where, perchance, it had its haunts the previous 

 summer. I have observed it in the uninhabited 

 islands of the Hebridean seas, and have heard 

 it near the summit of Ailsa Craig, rasping its 

 eerie cry after nightfall, as a rude lullaby to the 

 Gulls hatching on the grassy verge of a preci- 

 pice." 



This is by no means the limit of its haunts 

 northward and westward ; for besides being 

 found in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, and 

 the Faroe Isles, it actually visits Greenland, and 

 on several occasions has been met with on the 

 eastern coast of the United States, whither it 

 must have travelled, doubtless, via Greenland. 



