DECAPITATED WHILE SITTING. 
179 
very apt to "be mistaken as to the spot where the bird is when one 
listens to its- cry, which is at one time loucl, at another low, now 
seems to indicate a close proximity, now a remote position, and even 
appears to come from various directions. When uttering its cry 
the Corncraik usually remains still, standing with its neck consider- 
ably drawn in. I have watched it so employed through a hole in 
the wall ; but I have also seen it walk leisurely along at the time. 
At the period when the nights are shortest, I have heard it com- 
mence its cry as early as one in the morning. 
Although not gaudily attired, the Corncraik is richly coloured, 
and, when observed in its wild haunts, has an appearance of great 
elegance. It moves in a graceful manner, and when proceeding 
leisurely walks with what might be called sedateness, lifting its feet 
rather high, jerking up its short tail, and bending its neck backwards 
and forwards at every step, like the Water-hen. Alarmed, either 
while walking or uttering its cry, it instantly ceases, stands still or 
crouches, and if it judges it expedient, starts off, throv/ing its neck 
out and its body forward. It is not gregarious at any period of its 
residence with us, although in favourable situations, such as exten- 
sive meadows, many individuals may sometimes be found not far 
from each other. Its food consists of worms, testaceous mollusca, 
and insects, especially lepidoptera. 
Soon after it arrives it begins to form its nest, which is composed 
of a few straws, laid in a slight hollow, among corn or herbage of 
any kind. The eggs, which are of a light cream colour, or pale 
greyish yellow, patched, spotted, and dotted with auburn brownish 
red, are from eight to twelve in number. In colour they bear a 
remarkable resemblance to those of the Mistle Thrush. 
Yery closely does the mother bird sit on her eggs. 
Daniel relates that, in 1808, as some men were mowing- 
grass upon a little island belonging to the fishing water of 
Low Bells on Tweed, they cut the head from a Corncraik 
that was sitting upon eleven eggs ; and a more recent in- 
stance is related in the following pai-agraph from a 
newspaper: — 
^ As the mowers were cutting a field on the farm of 
Cockhall, near Eglinton, one of them, accidentally, nearly 
cut off the head of a Landrail, or Corncraik, while she 
was sitting on her nest. On examining the nest, it was 
found to contain six eggs, two of which were of her own 
production, two of the others were Partridge eggs, and the 
remaining two wxre the production of the domestic hen f ' 
Another cabinet picture, from the pencil of Macgillivray, 
we must introduce here : — 
M 2 
