240 Wild Life in a Southern County 



usual habits of the bird. There may be other instances 

 recorded, but what one sees oneself leaves so much deeper 

 an impression. The summer that followed was a very fine 

 one. It is instances like this that make one hesitate to 

 dogmatise too much as to the why and wherefore of bird- 

 ways. Yet it is just the speculation as to that why and 

 wherefore which increases the pleasure of observing them. 



Then there is the corn-crake, of whose curious tricks 

 in the mowing-grass I have already written. The crake's 

 rules of migration are not easily reconciled with any 

 theory I have ever heard of. In the particular locality 

 which has been described the crakes come early, they 

 enter the mowing-grass and remain there till after it is 

 cut ; immediately afterwards they are heard in the corn. 

 Presently they are silent and supposed to be gone ; but I 

 have heard of their being shot in the opening of the 

 shooting season on the uplands. The cry of the crake in 

 that locality is so common and so continuous as to form 

 one of the most striking features of the spring : the 

 farmers listen for them, and note their first arrival, just as 

 for the cuckoo — which, it may be observed in passing, 

 even in England keeps time with the young figs. 



But when I had occasion to pass a spring in Surrey 

 the first thing I noticed was the rarity of the crakes ; I 

 heard one or two at most, and that only for a short time. 

 Long before the grass was mown they were gone — 

 doubtless northwards, having only called in passing. I am 

 told they call again in coming back, and are occasionally 

 shot in September. But the next spring, chancing again 

 to be in Surrey at that season, though constantly about 

 out of doors, I never heard a crake but once — one single 

 call — and even then was not quite sure of it. I am told, 

 again, that there are parts of the county where they are 



