a chirp used to beg for food. Because of the difficulty in seeing this species, it is usually censused by counting males calling between 11 pm and 3 am; the birds do not move much at night, whereas they may wander up to during the day, which could lead to double-counting if monitored then. Identifying individual males suggests that just counting calling birds underestimates the true count by nearly 30%, and the discrepancy is likely to be greater, since only 80% of males may call at all on a given night. The corn crake is silent in Africa. Distribution and habitat The corn crake breeds from Ireland east through Europe to central Siberia. Although it has vanished from much of its historic range, this bird was once found in suitable habitats in Eurasia everywhere between latitudes 41°N and 62°N. There is also a sizable population in western China, but this species nests only rarely in northern Spain and in Turkey. Old claims of breeding in South Africa are incorrect, and result from misidentification of eggs in a museum collection which are actually those of the African rail. The corn crake winters mainly in Africa, from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and central Tanzania south to eastern South Africa. North of this area, it is mainly seen on migration, but occasionally winters in North Africa and to the west and north of its core area in southeast Africa. Most of the South African population of about 2,000 birds occurs in KwaZulu-Natal and the former Transvaal Province, and numbers elsewhere in Africa are uncertain. There are several nineteenth-century records, when populations were much higher than now, of birds being seen in western Europe, mainly Britain and Ireland, between December and February. This crake migrates to Africa along two main routes: a western route through Morocco and Algeria, and a more important flyway through Egypt. On passage, it has been recorded in most countries between its breeding and wintering ranges, including much of West Africa. Birds from Coll following the western route paused in West Africa on their way further south, and again on the return flight, when they also rested in Spain or North Africa. Eastern migrants have been recorded in those parts of southern Asia that lie between the east of the breeding range and Africa. Further afield, the corn crake has been recorded as a vagrant to Sri Lanka,