The Scottish Naturalist. 309 



III. Crex pratensis, Bechst. (Land-Rail or Corn-Crake.) 



In the Carse of Gowrie and lower parts of the district the 

 Land-Rail was ver}^ much more common than it is now, prob- 

 ably owing to drainage. Mr Horn considers it a scarce bird in 

 Strathtay ; while in Athole I am told it has become more abun- 

 dant of late years. Being a shy bird, unless brought under 

 observation by their craking on their first arrival, they may, 

 as the season advances, very easily escape notice — the more 

 especially as the call-note is then never heard ; and they quietly 

 slip away on their southern migration, merely leaving a young 

 bird or two to be seen in the clover-fields when Partridge-shoot- 

 ing commences, and are consequently often supposed to be 

 much scarcer than they really are. 



112. PoRZANA MARUETTA, Vicll. (Spotted Crake.) 



This is by no means a common bird, though it has been got 

 in various parts of the district, and on the lower parts of the 

 Tay I have not unfrequently met with it, but only in autumn 

 I have no notice of its breeding with us ; but being a shy retiring 

 bird, and most difficult to flush, darting through the long coarse 

 grass more like a rat than a bird, it may hitherto have escaped 

 observation. 



( To be continued. ) 



THE MIGEATION OF BIRDS. 



IN a former volume of this magazine there is a remark — writ- 

 ten, it is true, of one special group of natural objects, but 

 which is applicable to all — that to the naturalist the most attrac- 

 tive object should be the one of which the least is known. Not- 

 withstanding the amount that has been written regarding the 

 migration of birds, how little is really known, after all, about this 

 most interesting phenomenon. But that such is the case is not 

 really much to be wondered at, when we consider the difficulties 

 that stand in the way of the observer. However enthusiastic he 

 may be, he cannot always be in the right place at the right mo- 

 ment, and hence most recorded observations on migration have 

 hitherto been of a more or less sporadic nature. To the true nat- 

 uralist the difficulties in the way of acquiring such an amount of 

 full, continuous, and trustworthy records as will in time serve as 

 material for elucidating the laws of migration, have only served to 

 make the subject more attractive, and all will, we are sure, wel- 



