440 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
yellowish brown. The young birds in their down 
feathers are black, and not unlike little Moorhens. 
The eggs are a pale creamy chesnut, spotted 
mostly at the thicker end with chesnut and purplish 
chesnut. 
SPOTTED CRAKE, Crex porzana. This is by no 
means a common bird in our county, although pos- 
sibly it may not be quite so rare here as is generally 
supposed, for its very retired habits, the localities 
which it frequents, and the ease with which it runs 
through and conceals itself amongst the thickest 
herbage, from which it is by no means easy to rise 
it, keep it from general observation. 
Whether this bird is resident or migratory may 
appear doubtful. There is a note in the ‘ Zoologist,’ 
by the Rev. Murray A. Mathew, of his having shot 
two as late as the 18th of November, and it makes 
its appearance again as early as the middle of March; 
but there seems to be only one record of its having 
been obtained between those times, and that is by 
Yarrell, who says one was obtained in the London 
market in January, 1854. 
The food of the Spotted Crake appears to consist 
chiefly of worms, slugs, aquatic insects, small water 
and marsh snails, water plants, seeds, and other soft 
vegetable substances.* 
* Yarrell, vol. ili., p. 114; Meyer, vol. v., p. 119; and 
the ‘ Zoologist’ for 1864, p. 8890. 
