CRAKES 451 



might be naturally expected to arrive. Still more 

 curious is it that this American bird should have 

 been first made knovrn by Montagu from a specimen 

 obtained in England a year before it was described 

 by Wilson as a native of America. As to the means 

 by which it has contrived to reach this country, see 

 the remarks on pp. 446-447. 



Order X. FULICARIiE 



Fam. IIALLID^.. 



CAROLINA CRAKE. Crex Carolina (Linnceus). Length, 

 8 in. ; bill, 0*9 in. ; wing, 4-25 in. ; tarsus, 1-4 in. 



Hah. Temperate North America, wintering in Central 

 America, the West Indies, and South America. 



One on the Kennet, near Newbury, Berks, Oct. 1864 : 

 Newton, P.Z.S., 1865, p. 196 ; Eyre, ZooL, 1865, p. 9540 ; 

 Clark Kennedy, "Birds of Berks and Bucks," p. 196. 



Obs. Audubon mentions two instances of this 

 species having been met with at sea ; and as a proof 

 that the short-winged Rallidse are not incapable of 

 sustained flight, it may be noted that during the 

 voyage of the steamship Nova Scotia from Liverpool 

 to Quebec in October 1865, when in lat. 26° 28' N., 

 long. 23° 24' W., more than 500 miles from the 

 coast of Ireland, a Virginian Rail, Rallus virgini- 

 anus, came on deck and was captured. Both this 

 and the last-named species visit the Bermudas 

 annually, although this group of islands is distant 

 from Cape Hatteras, the nearest point of the North- 

 American coast, about 600 miles ! The well-known 

 Corncrake, too, is a summer visitant to Greenland, 



