114 BIRDS OF GUERNSF.Y. 



farm ; the young could scarcely fly. I saw one at the 

 bh'dstuffer's at Alderney, which had been shot in 

 that Island ; and the birdstuffer told me they were 

 common, and he believed they bred there, but he 

 had no eggs. Their number, however, is, I think, 

 rather increased in the autumn by migrants ; at all 

 events, more specimens are brought to the bird- 

 stuffers at that time of year. I have before men- 

 tioned the incident of the Water Eail being killed 

 by the Merlin, recorded by Mr. Couch in the 

 'Zoologist' for 1875. 



The Water Eail is included in Professor Ansted's 

 list, and marked as occurring in Guernsey and 

 Sark. There are two specimens in the Museum. 



96. Spotted Crake. Porzana maruetta, Leach. 

 French, '' Poule d'eau marouette." — I have some 

 doubt as to the propriety of including the Spotted 

 Crake in my list, but, on the whole, such evidence 

 as I have been able to collect seems in favom- of 

 its being at all events occasionally seen and shot, 

 though its small size and shy skulking habits keep 

 it very much from general notice. Mr. MacCuUoch, 

 however, writes to me to say the Spotted Kail has 

 been found here ; and one of Mr. De Putron's 

 labourers described a Eail to me which he had 

 shot in the Yale Pond in May, 1877, wdiich, from 

 his description, could have been nothing but a 

 Spotted Kail. 



