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 depicts the scene of a mower cutting the grass , before his " whistling Sithe " unknowingly " carves the Rail " . The farmhand draws out the scythe " all bloody from its breast " and " does the stroke detest " . It continues with a stanza that demonstrates the problematic nature of the corn crake 's nesting habits :