MEADOW OR CORN CRAKE. 
333 
ground colour or centre of the feathers is hair- 
brown, each being very broadly edged with yellow- 
ish-brown, or a yellow tint of oil-green ; the wing- 
coverts and axillary feathers orange -brown ; the 
quills a dull reddish hair-brown, darkest on the 
inner webs ; the region of the eyes, auricular s, and 
sides of the neck, are reddish wood-brown, shaded 
into the throat and breast, the former of which is 
white, tinted with grey, the latter yellowish-brown ; 
the centre of the belly is nearly white, shading gra- 
dually to the sides and flanks, which are reddish- 
orange, barred with hair-hrown and reddish-W'hite ; 
bill brown, pink towards the base; legs and feet 
yellowish-brown. 
The nest is placed on the ground, in a furrow' 
or some slight hollow, and is constructed of grasses ; 
the eggs often amount to ten or eleven in number ; 
and, altogether, the nest much more resembles that 
of the partridge or some of the Tetraonidce than of 
the Grallatorial birds. The food, during its summer 
migration, is insects, worms, slugs, &c., and w r e once 
took a mouse from the stomach of one killed in the 
vicinity of Edinburgh. Out of Europe, we have 
the range of this bird noted to Africa,* and also to 
Madeira, f 
* Mr. WUde, quoted by Mr. Yarrell. + Dr. Heineken. 
