402 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 
for 1842, under date of August 23rd. “ About ten days 
since I received a specimen of that rare bird the Baillon’s 
Crake, killed near Yarmouth; it is a fine male.” Again, 
in October, 1849, as Mr. Dowell informs me, he and a 
friend, when snipe shooting at Shropham and on Buck- 
enham Fen, killed two of these crakes in the day. One, 
unfortunately, was too much spoilt by the dog for pre- 
servation, and the other he presented to the Rev. W. 
W. Poley, of Brandon, in whose possession it still 
remains. Although constantly shooting, however, in the 
same neighbourhood over the small chain of fens which 
border on the river Thet, he never met with another 
specimen.* 
The discovery of the supposedt+ nest and eggs of 
this bird, in Norfolk, in the summer of 1866, was 
first announced in the “ Zoologist” for that year (p. 
389) by Mr. J. Overend, of Yarmouth, who, under 
date of July 9th, states, “On the 9th of June a friend 
of mine in this town was fortunate enough to obtain 
in the market four eggs of Baillon’s crake,t and on 
* Two Suffolk examples of this crake are recorded by Messrs. 
Sheppard and Whitear; one taken near Beccles, and the other at 
Nacton. 
+ It should be borne in mind that although it has been 
taken for granted, hitherto, that the Potter Heigham nests were 
those of Baillon’s crake, yet there is no positive evidence as to the 
fact. From the number of instances of the occurrence of the little 
crake, in Norfolk, it is quite possible the nests may have belonged 
to that species, more especially since no less an authority in oolo- 
gical matters than Mr. A. Newton, assures me he does not profess 
to know the difference (if there be any) between the eggs of the 
two species. In the case of the Cambridgeshire nest, as already 
stated, a hen Baillon’s crake was taken on one of them. 
{ The only other recorded instance of the breeding of Baillon’s 
crake in England, is recorded by Mr. A. F. Sealy in the “ Zoolo- 
gist” for 1859 (p. 6329), in which year two nests were found in 
the Cambridgeshire Fens; one on the 6th of June containing six 
eggs, and one in the first week in August, when the hen bird was 
