BIRDS 339 



since in the neighbourhood of RocklifFe. Mr. Dickinson wrote 

 from his home in the west of Cumberland in 1882 : 'This bird 

 is now rare around here. In my young days [say 1810] its 

 whit-tu-whit was frequently heard in the breeding season, in 

 rye-grass fields, or in the drier meadows. I only remember 

 seeing one bird so late in the autumn that the ground was 

 covered with a few inches of snow. They appear to leave the 

 country at the end of summer or early in autumn.' 1 



Order FULICARIjE. Fani. RALLIDJE. 



CORN CRAKE. 



Crex pratensis, Bechst. 



The numbers in which this bird visits Lakeland vary season- 

 ally, but from the grass meadows of Holker Park, northwards, 

 it is generally a common summer visitant. Many of our old 

 inhabitants were accustomed, as young men, to shoot Land 

 Rails upon their first arrival in spring, either over dogs or by 

 decoying them within shot by means of a wooden comb. 

 This practice has become obsolete, and some consider that the 

 bird has become more abundant in consequence. It nests in 

 gardens occasionally, but chiefly in our hay- fields. Mr. A. 

 Smith, who has examined many nests, tells me that he considers 

 eleven eggs to be the maximum number laid by any one bird. In 

 June 1891 he found a Land Rail covering twenty-one eggs, placed 

 in a tolerably deep depression, lined with finely-shredded grass. 

 He took and blew the twenty-one eggs, which he found to be but 

 little advanced in incubation. He had no doubt that two pairs 

 frequented the field in question, and that the females had 

 laid their eggs together. He found another nest containing 

 fifteen eggs, but some of these were rotten, and in this instance 

 also two birds had laid their eggs in the same nest. The 

 actions of the Corn Crake are animated and interesting. In 

 September 1890 George Dawson gave me a young bird which 

 had been captured among some ' stooks ' the day previous. 

 It was too shy to eat before us, but, with the assistance of a 

 1 West Cumberland Rem,., p. 16. 



