IS THE CORNCRAICE MIGRATORY ?
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."1 SIR, —In your review of Mr. Dixon's " Migration of Birds," in the Spectator of October 15th, it is stated, on the authority .of that work, that the migratory journey of the corncrake extends to seven thousand miles. Will you allow me, with all due diffidence, to question the accuracy of this. statement? m To any one who has ever seen a corncrake fly, it must, in the absence of very clear proof to the contrary, seem hardly credible that it should even cross the British Channel, to say nothing of a journey of seven thousand miles. Its ordinary flight closely resembles that of a common water-hen, and rarely -exceeds a few hundred yards. When flushed in a field of growing hay—its favourite resort during the summer—it generally realights in another part of the same field. It flies in a weak, flapping, uncertain kind of way, as different as possible from the strong whirring flight of the partridge. Is it certain that this bird migrates at all ? I distinctly re- member having put up at least one corncrake in a turnip- ' ield in the north of Ireland, either in the latter end of December or in January. It is a good many years ago now, but I am certain that it was in one or other of those months, for I was a schoolboy at the time and at home for the Christ- mas holidays. Unless there is conclusive proof of its being a migratory bird, I should prefer to believe that it has acquired the reputation of a migrant by the habit of hiber- nation, if that be possible to birds of this class, or, if not, by concealing itself in some way from observation during the
Sh,alijahaupur, N.W.P., India, November 13th, 1892.
[The migration of these short-winged birds is probably very gradual, and broken by periods of rest. A few young or in- jured corncrakes remain late, or possibly stay through winter with us.—En. Spectator.]
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