William Thompson

“ 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. ”

“ Owing to its late period of breeding, this bird suffers sadly during the mowing of our meadows, about which time it is generally engaged in incubation. Should it not fall a victim to the mower by the loss of its head, the nest being laid bare is deserted, or if the young have recently "come out," they are often either maimed or destroyed by the scythe. ”

“ The call is generally attributed by naturalists to the male only. Attempts were made to rear others unsuccessfully : on one occasion a young one was put- into the cage with two old birds, which seemed fond of their charge, and endeavoured to induce it to eat by presenting worms in their bills, but ineffectually.
Mr. Knox, in his agreeable Ornithological Rambles in Sussex mentions as a vulgar belief in the county, that cuckoos become hawks in winter. Such is also a prevalent notion among the uneducated in the north of Ireland. ”

“ W. R. Wilde, author of the ' Narrative of a Yoyage to Madeira, the Mediterranean &c, mentioned to me on his return, that when at Algiers in the month of December he saw several land-rails, and was told that the species wintered there.
Footnote 1 Leigh, in his ' Natural History of Lancashire/ informs us that " the rale is a bird about the bigness of a partridge, and is common in these parts ; it hides itself in the grass, and is discovered by the snarling noise that it continually makes ; it is very excellent food, and doubtless of extraordinary nutriment." ”

“ The snail must be rapidly digested in the stomachs of birds generally, as in some hundred cases that have come under my examination the internal shell alone has borne witness to its having ever been there. ”

“ They inhabit a cage together with a ruff, starlings, thrushes, blackbirds, &c. A supply of chopped beef heart, of which all its denizens partake, is daily put in the cage. The corncrakes probably share in various other kinds of food supplied by visitors to the gardens. They show no symptoms of torpidity, though much exposed to cold. The species simulates death when surprised, and in this state, probably, has been supposed to be torpid. ”

“ Bewick, in one of the inimitable tail-pieces to his British Birds represents the catastrophe first alluded to. Footnote 9 Fortunately the species is very 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 Win. 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 ”

“ With respect to other parts of Ireland : — At Toomavara (Tipperary) a young bird unable to fly was once caught so late as the 18th of October. In the county of Wexford, land-rails are always met with by sportsmen in the month of October, but not in November. Footnote 12 On November 6th, 1848, one was shot in the co. of Cork ; twice in January, birds have been killed in the co. of Dublin, Footnote 13 and in the first week of February 1849, one was obtained in the Moyntaghs, co. ”