corn crake

a short-billed Eurasian rail, Crex crex, frequenting grainfields.

Also called land rail.

Origin of corn crake

First recorded in 1545–55

The hay harvest in July is a cause of much disturbance to the Corncrake.

Among the Birds in Northern Shires |Charles Dixon
Like the rasp of a corncrake she heard the wheels of the barouche on the gravel.

A Bed of Roses |W. L. George
Now he never goes across the sea at all, and do you see the corncrake?

The King of Ireland's Son |Padraic Colum
A farmer at Aikerness in Orkney, about midwinter, in demolishing a mud-wall, found a Corncrake in the midst of it.

The Romance of Natural History, Second Series |Philip Henry Gosse

A corncrake jarred in a hay-field near by, and the small trouts of the brook began to jump.

Puck of Pook's Hill |Rudyard Kipling

corncrake

/ (ˈkɔːnˌkreɪk) /

a common Eurasian rail, Crex crex, of fields and meadows, with a buff speckled plumage and reddish wings