200 BIRDS OF LANCASHIRE. 



GENUS POEZANA. 

 SPOTTED CRAKE. 



PORZANA MARUETTA (Leacll). 



The Spotted Crake is best known as an autumn and 

 winter visitor, and although rare on the whole, there are 

 few districts in which, at one time or other, specimens 

 have not been shot, like the Water-Piail, its retiring 

 habits making it easily to be passed over. No actual 

 nest is on record, but Mr. J. B. Hodgkinson tells me 

 that the species used to be very common on a marsh 

 near Preston, now drained, and that he has often seen 

 young birds there which must have been bred close by. 

 Dr. Skaife wrote in the Mag. of Nat. Hist., 1838, that 

 he was informed by some farmers that in the neighbour- 

 hood of Martin Mere it was as abundant as the Water- 

 Rail, and Lord Lilford writes me that near Tarleton it 

 is not uncommon in September. Mr. Hugh P. Hornby 

 has seen and shot a considerable number near St. 

 Michael's-on-Wyre, between September and December, 

 and, writing in the Zoologist (December, 1873) on one 

 young and one old bird which he caught alive, sa3's : — 

 " They show great repugnance to flying, preferring to 

 trust to their legs, running ver}' quickly and low, and 

 looking more like rats than birds. Even when liberated 

 in open ground, the two I caught refused to fly, though 

 quite free from injury. On being placed in some shallow, 

 clear water, they immediately dive, staying below the 

 surface a considerable time, occasionally using their 

 wings until a rushy patch be found, in which they creep, 

 and remain as long as possible, when they raise their 



