BIRDS. 



289 



Crex pratensis, ^«cAs^. Land-Rail or Corn-Crake. 



Abundant. Summer visitant. Breeds. 



Uncertain in numbers year by year, i.e. some years commoner 

 than in others. It was noted as not very common in Strath Tay in 

 1879 by Mr. Horn, but was abundant in Atholl in 1880. They are 

 supposed by many people to be less common than they really are. 

 This belief arises, I think, from the fact that they are more silent 

 in some years than in others, and in such seasons — as indeed always 

 — they are not often seen. This I have proved more than once to my 

 own satisfaction, though not of late years. Formerly, when I was 

 " up to " certain poaching dodges — when I was young and foolish — 

 I proved this by calling them up to my feet and shooting several of 

 an evening, when not one was to be heard calling in the early 

 sprouting of the corn. They were there, though silent. The north 

 sides of lochs and river-valleys — therefore facing the sun — are 

 usually preferred to the side that is in the shade. 



Mr. W. Evans heard Corn-Crakes calling, as late in the season as 

 July 1887, in the Tay valley. 



From all accounts, they were rarer or more silent in 1905 than 

 usual. May and June were exceptionally cold and ungenial. My 

 own experiences bore out the above remark. 



Gallinula chloropus (L.). Moorhen or Waterhen. 



Common. Resident. Breeds. 



From several sources, I heard of a considerable falling off in their 

 numbers after the severe winter of 1878-9, especially in the great reed- 

 beds of Tay. Many perished and were found dead in different 

 places. This was the case, indeed, in many other parts of Scotland 

 that winter, and especially where the rivers run slowly and are most 

 easily susceptible to the attack of John Frost. The AVaterhen seems 

 to me to be. in some respects, a " singularly silly bird." It often loses 

 its whole nest and eggs by their submergence in times of floods, and 

 yet they appear to gain no experience ! I have known of at least a 

 dozen of their nests thus destroyed on quite a short reach of river — 

 the Deveron (Moray), and elsewhere ; yet within a short time once 

 more the birds would begin second operations in exactly the same 

 places, and these once-flooded sites would all be occupied again, only 

 again to be submerged. The Waterhen ought to confine its attentions 

 to sluiced reservoirs and mill-ponds and shut-ofi" backwaters, and 

 leave running streams alone. 



It is a glutton, too. I have known of cases where, diu^ing hard 



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