1/8 Wild Life in a Southern County 



blackbird when singing — always provided that they are 

 temporarily invisible. 



When the crake remains a long time in one place, 

 uttering the call continuously, the illusion disappears, and 

 there is no more difficulty in approximately fixing its posi- 

 tion 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 cessa- 

 tion in the middle of the day, but towards evening it re- 

 commenced, 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 localised deceived no 

 one by their supposed ventriloquial powers ; therefore 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 be- 

 hind it. It is not easy sometimes to fix the position of 

 the death-tick in woodwork. The home-field or meadow 

 here is a favourite haunt of the crakes, for like all other 

 birds they have their special places of resort. Another 



