t 



WATER-HEN 225 



of both species above given are taken from specimens 

 in my collection. 



As a British bird the Little Crake was first 

 obtained by Markwick in Sussex, at Catshill, near 

 Battle, in March 1791, and was supposed by him to 

 be a Spotted Crake (see his " Catalogue of Sussex 

 Birds," p. 9), but a description and coloured drawing 

 of the bird in a MS. of Markwick's preserved in the 

 Library of the Linnean Society proves it to have 

 been the rarer species (see Zool., 1890, p. 343). 

 Since Markwick's day half-a-dozen other specimens 

 of this little bird have been procured in Sussex, as 

 noted by Messrs. Knox, Borrer, Ellman, Button, 

 and Parkin [Zool., 1895, p. 309). Three have been 

 obtained in Yorkshire ; a few in other counties. 



The Little Crake has not been met with in 

 Scotland, and only one specimen has been reported 

 from Ireland. This was obtained at Balbriggan, Co. 

 Dublin, on March 11, 1854, and came into possession 

 of the Rev. Canon Tristram. 



The weight of this bird is 2 oz., or barely that of 

 a Jack Snipe. 



WATER-HEN or MOORHEN. Gallinula chloropus 

 (Linnaeus). PI. 26, fig. 2, 2a. Length, 13 in. ; bill, 

 1'5 in.; wing, 6"75 in.; tarsus, 1-75 in. 



Resident, and generally distributed ; frequenting 



weedy ponds and the overgrown banks of streams ; 



often roosting in coverts at a distance from water, 



and sometimes at a considerable height from the 



ground. 



P 



