Times change, and carnivores such as human beings go through phases. Who today would eat corncrake, even if it were legal? Yet Mrs Beeton has recipes for cooking game, roast landrail or corncrake. Of the average cost, which she normally includes, she remarks: "seldom bought", i.e. usually consumed by the shooter and family. It is an interesting sketch of the bird that she gives - she or her wildlife advisor.
"It is migratory in its habits, yet, from its formation seems ill-adapted for long aerial passages, its wings being short and placed so forward out of the centre of gravity that it flies with an extremely heavy and embarrassed manner, and with its legs hanging down. When it alights, it can hardly be sprung a second time, as it runs very fast, and seems to depend for its safety more on the swiftness of its feet than the celerity of its wings. It makes its appearance in England about the same time as the quail, that is in the months of April and May, and frequents the same places.
"Its singular cry is first heard when the grass becomes long enough to shelter it, and it continues to be heard until the grass is cut. The bird, however, is seldom seen, for it constantly skulks among the thickest portions of the herbage and runs so nimbly through it, doubling and winding in every direction, that it is difficult to get near it. It leaves this island [Britain] before the winter, and repairs to other countries in search of its food, which principally consists of slugs, large numbers of which it destroys. It is very common in Ireland. (this was published in 1861).
"Whilst migrating in this country, it is seen in great numbers in the island of Anglesea. On its first arrival in England it is so lean as scarcely to weigh above five or six ounces; before its departure, however, it has been known to exceed eight ounces and is then delicious eating." Mrs Beeton notes: allow four for a dish.
Outrageous, of course, by today's standards. Were so many killed that the decline in population began in Victorian England? Hardly. In living memory there have been places where, from field to field, corncrakes could be heard. We, in this generation, are not so mindful of what you may call Nature's laws. We eat chickens reared in concentration camp conditions. It does make for cheapness, and many can now afford it regularly who, a generation or two ago, could not. But what of the end result? What could we be building up for later generations?