igo STUBBS: THE CORNCRAKE IN ESSEX. 
records made by the Rev. Revett Sheppard at Wrabness for the 
years 1818-30. These particulars are from Mr. Miller Christy’s 
Birds of Essex? In the same work appears evidence that, during 
last century, the species could not have been anything but an 
occasional summer visitor to the county. There seems to be no 
reason to believe that the Corncrake was, at any time, actually 
common in Essex, using the term as it may be applied in 
reference to the bird in other counties. 
My first encounter with a Corncrake in any south-eastern 
county (Sussex, Surrey, Kent, Wilts, Berks, Middlesex, Bucks, 
Essex) was in 1914. On the 18th May in that year, I heard the 
familiar note in a large meadow adjoining the road at Piercing 
Hill, Theydon Bois. Yet an unfamiliar quality about the call 
puzzled me for some time, until I discovered that the bird 
‘‘ craked ” at the rate of go to the minute, while other Corncrakes 
that I have timed elsewhere uttered their call about 60 or 64 
to the minute. I never saw this bird, which remained audible 
throughout the summer. In 1915, it turned up again at the 
same place ; and, the following summer also, I often heard it, 
either in the original meadow or in the fields towards the 
east. For example, in 1916, the bird haunted the rough 
herbage of the sewage farm near the station ; and the rate of 
utterence was now, we observed, over 100 per minute. In May, 
1917, the bird appeared once more at Piercing Hill. At the 
end of the month (unwilling auditors until the small hours 
of the morning ; for we were on duty ”) we had an 
opportunity of observing that the '‘crake” was repeated 112 
times each minute. The performer commenced this night, 
27 May, at 10.54 V- m -> an d “ sang ” without dropping a single 
note for one hour thirty-five minutes—and, even then, it did no 
more than hesitate for a few seconds, continuing until daylight. 
On this occasion, we had the rare fortune of hearing the 
curious note of the female bird, the ringing “ peep, peep ” being 
uttered four times as we leaned on the gate. This call has been 
likened to the monosyllabic note of the Lapwing, but a closer 
comparison is with the voice of the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. 
It came from the north-west corner of the field, close to the gate ; 
and it had, I observed, no effect on the male craking so assidu¬ 
ously a hundred yards away. Possibly this “ peep ” is an 
2 Op. cit. (1891), pp, 39-42. 
