272 
THE BIRDS OF HAMPSHIRE. 
Genus— Cr^. 
205. Crex pratensis, Corn-Orake. 
Land-rail. 
" The meadow-crake 
Grate her harsh kindred in the grass." 
Tennyson^s " The Princess^ 
A common summer visitor to all parts of the county, 
including the Isle of Wight, occasionally remaining for the 
winter, more especially in the Island. 
Gilbert White wrote in his Journal in October, 1789 : — 
" A man brought me a land-rail or daker-hen, a bird so 
rare in this district that we seldom see more than one 
or two in a season, and those only in autumn." 
Mr. Harting remarks ^ that the scarcity of the bird at 
Selborne in White's time is not a little remarkable. "It 
is by no means scarce there at the present day. In 
September, 1863, the writer, while shooting .... within 
ten miles of Selborne, killed three brace in one day. . . . 
If the species were not really overlooked by White, owing 
to its skulking habits, the increase in its numbers in the 
district .... must be attributed to the alteration which 
has taken place in the mode of cultivating the surrounding 
farms, and the greater attraction now afforded to the bird 
in the way of food and shelter." 
We do not think that White could possibly have over- 
looked the bird if it had been nesting in Selborne. We 
know that he was well acquainted with it at Oxford 
and elsewhere. 
' White's Selborne. Harling's Edition, p. 328. 
