222 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS 



take part in the autumn migration. In the north of 

 England this bird is called " Daker-hen," i.e. the 

 "acre-hen" or "field-hen," cognate with the Scan- 

 dinavian Ager hone. Under this name it is men- 

 tioned by Turner, Merret, and Willughby. 



Mr. W. H. Henderson, of Nether Perkley, Lin- 

 lithgow, N.B., informed me that when shooting on 

 Ben Lawers, on the 12th August 1872, he bagged a 

 Land-Rail at an elevation of 2500 feet. 



In Sept. 1892 a white Land-Rail was shot at 

 Keddleston, and is figured in Whitlock's " Birds of 

 Derbyshire," p. 190. 



The average weight of this bird is from 7 oz. to 8 

 oz., or little more than half that of a good partridge. 



SPOTTED CRAKE. Crex porzana (Linnaeus). PI. 26, 

 *}' fig. 3. Length, 9 in. ; bill, 0*5 in. ; wing, 4*5 in. ; 



tarsus, 1*25. 



A spring and autumn migrant, occasionally re- 

 maining to nest in suitable localities. Eggs were 

 found near Whittlesea Wash in Cambridgeshire in 

 1883 (Zool, 1891, p. 90). Before the fenlands were 

 so extensively drained it used to breed commonly in 

 the eastern counties of England, and also in the 

 marshes bordering the Thames in Kent and Essex. 

 Graves, in his "British Ornithology," 1821, observes, 

 "The Spotted Crake is met with in greater abun- 

 dance within a few miles of London than perhaps 

 in any other part of this kingdom. We have known 

 this bird to breed in the fields to the left of the 

 Kent Road, called Rolls Meadows." 



