189 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.2 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 90 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
utterance 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 p.m., and "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.