314 
RALLID^. 
prolific^ laying not unfrequently about a dozen of eggs : the young 
can run nimbly so soon as they burst the shell. 
It is remarked by Sir Wm. Jardine respecting this rail^ that — 
In some parts it has decreased and without apparent cause ; in 
the vale of the Annan in the south of Scotland, ten years since, 
the bird was extremely common, its note being heard in almost 
every alternate field; at the present time it may almost be ac- 
counted rare, during last summer (1841) only one or two pairs 
being heard within a stretch of several miles."’^ — ^ Brit. Birds,^ 
vol. hi. p. 331. In the north of Ireland, the land-rail became 
very much scarcer about the same time as the partridge (see 
p. 58), and continued so for fully fifteen years. They were 
never more scarce than in 1843, but within the last very few 
summers they have, like that species, rapidly increased. At no 
period have I heard them more plentiful (for we hear rather than 
see the corncrake) than in the summer of 1848, about Cultra, on 
the borders of Belfast Bay. They were also numerous that 
season in various parts of Down and Antrim ; and in 1849 were 
equally abundant. Their scarcity for a long period seemed the 
more remarkable, as they had become, around Belfast, less an 
object of pursuit by sportsmen, than formerly. Their having ever 
been so, was unpopular, the bird being a general favourite, and 
viewed as one of the innocent guests of summer,"’^ whose note 
is as well known as that of the cuckoo, and much more frequently 
heard. Brom its slow and slovenly mode of flight also, the corn- 
crake is believed to faU too easy a sacrifice to the gun. So unwill- 
ing is this bird to take wing, that I have frequently seen it when 
running caught on the ground by dogs. The power of flight it 
can exert is, however, considerable when called forth by the pursuit 
of the peregrine falcon, as alluded to in the history of that bird. 
For a short time only after arrival can the land-rail be followed 
by the sportsman without injury to the meadows or crops which 
it frequents. He does not again meet with it until the 20th of 
September, the first day of partridge-shooting in Ireland. So few 
are then seen, at least in the north, compared with the num- 
bers in spring before they have bred, that the greater portion 
