Corn crakes are the subject of three stanzas of the seventeenth century poet Andrew Marvell 's " Upon Appleton House " , written in 1651 about the North Yorkshire country estate of Thomas Fairfax . The narrator depict the scene of a mower cutting the grass , before his " whistling Sithe " unknowingly " carve the Rail " . The farmhand draw out the scythe " all bloody from its breast " and " do the stroke detest " . It continue with a stanza that demonstrate the problematic nature of the corn crake 's nesting habits :