The 
Corncrake. 
(32) 
1 HE BIRD WORLD. 
Photo ] {Grey. 
Landrail on Nest. 
and grasses, besides a varied diet of 
slugs, worms, and grubs, its general use¬ 
fulness to the farmer being scarcely 
counteracted by a single bad habit. 
Daddy-long-legs and the common ghost 
moth, both injurious insects, are eagerly 
sought after, alike in their larval and 
mature stages; and earwigs and beetles 
of various sorts are specially acceptable. 
The esteem with which the Landrail was 
regarded as an article of food is spoken 
of by many old writers; thus Drayton, 
in the “ Poly-olbion,” refers to it as 
“ The Rayle, that seldom comes but upon 
the rich men’s spits.” 
The return of the Corncrake and the 
Curlew is looked forward to with joy in 
many a remote Highland sheiling, for, 
like the Grouse and the Skylark, they 
are regarded as “ lucky birds,” a senti¬ 
ment which has never extended to the 
Pheasant. Hence the old song,— 
‘ The gore-cock an’ crake may keep you awake, 
But if harsh be their cry sthl it’s pleesant. 
The bonny grey hen we loo weel i’ the gleny 
But the Strath’s no the place for the pneesant.’ 
Landrails seem particularly liable to 
be killed by coming in contact with tele¬ 
graph wires, and may frequently be 
picked up dead, both in spring and 
autumn, along the railway sides. The 
second photograph is of a bird so found 
recently, and was taken as it had fallen. 
An examination disclosed a wound upon 
the neck, and that the neck itself had 
been dislocated, an injury which one 
would scarcely'have expected to find in 
such circumstances in so light a bird, 
and one so comparatively slow upon the 
wing. 
In the outdoor aviary the Corncrake 
may be easily kept upon the ordinary 
diet supplied to Quails, Partridges, and 
Doves; and, as indicated above, will 
always greatly appreciate any sort of 
insect food. Beetles, earwigs, slugs, 
worms, and the like should always be 
thrown into the enclosure whenever they 
are at hand, and if there is no grass 
growing naturally in the run, fresh-cut 
sods will be a welcome addition from 
time to time, not only to the Landrails, 
but to its other inmates. Further green 
food may be supplied in the form of 
lettuce, cabbage leaves, and such garden 
stuff, and if ordinary care be bestowed 
upon him, the Corncrake will reward his 
owner with his well-known cry in the 
spring months, and keep it up throughout 
the greater part of the summer. 
Photo ] {Grey. 
Telegraphed. 
