204 BIRDS OF MIDDLESEX. 



not often seen, and is, therefore, considered rare. 

 Mr. Yarrell accurately remarks that this species is 

 more aquatic in its habits than the last-named, fre- 

 quenting the sides of streams and ponds wherever 

 a good supply of rushes or flags is to be found 

 wherein to hide. It is a very shy bird, and seldom 

 seen on the wing ; for being by nature of slender 

 and compressed form, like all the Kails, it makes its 

 way through thick rushes or flags with the greatest 

 ease, and, unless hard pressed, is always very loth 

 to rise. 



Notwithstanding this, however, sportsmen, with 

 the aid of a good dog, occasionally flush and kill a 

 specimen, and I am able to record the capture of no 

 less than twelve in this county. Others, probably, 

 have occurred of which I have not heard. Mr. Blyth 

 saw a Spotted Crake in the London market in the 

 month of January, 1834 ; and one, in the collection 

 of Mr. Bond, w^as obtained some j^ears later at 

 Kingsbury, as recorded in ' The Zoologist' for 1843. 

 Two specimens were shot at Jessop's Ait, Chiswick, 

 in the autumn of 1862, by a market-gardener named 

 Anstice ; and in the following year one was shot near 

 Stone Bridge, on the Brent, on the IGth October, 

 which proved to be a bird of the year ; and another, 

 now in the collection of Mr. Dutton, of Hammer- 

 smith, was killed at Jessop's Ait, above-mentioned, 

 on the 12th November. This last bird, which I 

 have seen, is a female. IMr. Dutton informs me 



