138 BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS 



the light of day. I have no doubt, however, from my 

 recollection of this note in Spain and Denmark, that the 

 stranger was a Spotted Crake. Both notes continued 

 to be heard until the early part of May, and there is 

 no doubt that both species bred there. 



This bog" is a little bit of a place, that I had made a 

 year or two before, by damming"-back a sluggish ditch ; 

 and it was an intense satisfaction to find it attract two 

 such interesting species. Besides these, reed-buntings 

 came to breed there, as well as waterhens, sandpipers, 

 kingfisher, and mallard. Redshanks and snipe also visit 

 it in March, and again in July. 



It is the drainage of every bit of moist or marshy 

 land — even a little boggy corner like this — that has well- 

 nigh eliminated marsh-birds from the British avifauna. 

 There are very few spots where the spotted crake 

 breeds in the north — perhaps half-a-dozen. I have notes 

 of three specimens shot in autumn : but, unlike the water- 

 rail, it disappears before winter, and the latest killed was 

 on October 26th. 



My brother Alfred and I found a spotted crake's nest 

 in West Jutland, May 15th, 1893 — A. almost putting 

 his hand on the old bird (to save himself from falling in 

 the squash-bog), when she rose from eight eggs. We 

 were looking for a nest of the blacktailed godwit at the 

 moment, and the four eggs of the latter also lay within a 

 dozen yards. Jutland, however, is not all drained dry. 



Short-Eared Owl {Asio accipitrinus). 



The status of this species, until recent years, might 

 have been defined as that of a winter-migrant with strong 

 presumption that a small proportion remained to breed ; 



