STUBBS: THE CORNCRAKE IN ESSEX. 
189 
L. heterophylla is a species that produces spores very plentifully, 
and is abundant in tlie Chingford part of the Forest. There 
must be few places where its spores do not penetrate, and I 
suggest that the plants growing amongst the Ptilidium had 
germinated from spores. It will be interesting to watch the 
struggle between the species for the possession of the tree 
trunk. The struggle has already been going on some time. 
The most interesting point about the Ptilidium is the cilia 
on its leaves. At first, the strangeness arrests attention. With 
acquaintance, the beauty of the plant, the velvety look of it, 
and its delicacy grow on one and become a charm. 
THE CORNCRAKE IN ESSEX. 
By FREDK. J. STUBBS. 
[Read 27 October 1917.] 
HE present rarity of the Corncrake or Landrail (Crex 
JL pratensis) in the south-eastern counties has been discussed 
by numerous observers. Many communications on this subject 
have appeared in recent ornithological publications. 1 An idea 
expressed pretty generally was that the species abounded 
formerly in certain counties where it is to-day all but unknown 
as a nesting bird, and that the decrease was, therefore, permanent. 
Yet the bird is known to fluctuate numerically in districts 
where it has been always, and is still, common, both in 
Great Britain and on the Continent. In Essex, possibly, 
it w r as never so abundant as it is to-day in parts of Wales, 
in the north of England, and in Scotland, where one may 
have half-a-dozen in earshot at once—that is, in good “ corn¬ 
crake years.” The bird is extremely conspicuous owing to 
its voice, and could hardly remain unnoticed during the nesting 
season, either in Essex or elsewhere. During the rest of the 
year, the Corncrake is almost, if not entirely, silent. 
So far as Essex is concerned, w r e have two sets of records 
of the dates of arrival of summer migrants, these relating to the 
extreme w'est and the extreme east of the county respectively. 
The first is Doubleday’s list at Epping, from 1828 to 1845. In 
his list of twenty-five species, the name of the Corncrake does 
not appear ; and it occurs but once (for 1829) in a similar set of 
1 See Zoologist, 1911, pp. 74, 114 150, 237. 315, &c.; British Birds, viii. (1915). pp. 82-92. 
