536 THE BIRDS OF YORKSHIRE. 



Ackworth ; Dress Drake, at Skelmanthorpe ; Grass Quake, 

 at Barnsley ; and Gurs or Gors Duck, near Huddersfield 

 (Zool. 1848, p. 2290) ; while Creek, Crake, or Cracker are 

 mentioned by Swainson. 



SPOTTED CRAKE. 



Porzana maruetta {LeacK). 



Resident ; very local and limited as to numbers. A spring and autumn 

 migrant ; in some years not uncommon during the latter period. 



The first mention of the Spotted Crake for Yorkshire 

 is found in the Tunstall MS. (1784, p. 91), under the title of 

 Spotted Gallinule, " Not unfrequently shot here [Wycliffe-on- 

 Tees], and as late as October." 



Thomas Allis, in 1844, wrote : — 



Crex porzana. — Spotted Crake — H. Reid says it is common near 

 Doncaster ; it is not frequent near York, though it breeds most years 

 close to the City. I had two young birds from that locality in 1841 ; 

 the one flew across a river and entered a cottage, the other was caught 

 by a boy. 



This bird is a resident, very local and limited in numbers, 

 and owing to its peculiar skulking habits is, perhaps, the 

 most difficult of all birds to discern in the dense aquatic 

 vegetation which it frequents. There can be little doubt 

 that it is, for this reason, frequently overlooked during the 

 breeding season. 



Thomas Allis, in his Report (1844), mentioned it, on the 

 authority of Hugh Reid, as frequenting the " Carrs " of 

 Doncaster, and stated that it was found breeding in most 

 years near York, from which locality he had two young birds, 

 able to fly, in 1841. Mr. F. Boyes is of opinion that it used 

 to breed annually in Holderness, where he found the nest 

 and eggs in a patch of dense sedges, near the banks of the 

 river Hull, on 21st May 1882. Near Ackworth a pair bred 

 at Hemsworth Dam in 1899, as Major Arundel informs me 

 {in Hit. March 1903), and it has occurred on the Harrogate 

 Irrigation Farm in the nesting season. 



