136 THE BIRDS OF OXFOEDSHIEE. 



collection of British Birds. Should this prove to be the only instance 

 of the capture of the bird in Britain, I shall feel glad in having saved 



it from oblivion. 



I am. Gentlemen, 



Your obedient Servant, 



Thos. Goatley. 

 Chipping Norton, Oxon. 

 Nov. II, 1844. 



[The bird in question is the Hemipodlus tachidromus of Temminck, 

 which is figured in Mr. Gould's ' Birds of Europe,' vol. iv, plate 264. 

 Mr. Gould, to whom we have shown Mr. Goatley's letter, considers this 

 one of the most interesting additions to the British Fauna that has 

 occurred for many years. — Ed.] 



This specimen, then in the collection of the Rev. H. 

 Roundell o£ Fringford, was figured by the Messrs. Matthews 

 in the Zoologist for 1849, and it was also drawn and engraved 

 for YarrelFs History of British Birds. Mr. Edward Newman, 

 to whom Mr. Goatley sent the bird, accompanied by a photo- 

 graph, had the jjleasvire of showing both to the London 

 ornithologists, and published full particulars of the specimen 

 in the Zoologist for 1845, ]). 989. 



Upon the evidence of Mr. Goatley^s letter this sjjecies was 

 included among the British Fauna, and, with the exception of 

 another said to have been taken in Yorkshire in 1865, it has 

 never been procured in Great Britain since. 



The Andalusian Hemipode inhabits parts of southern 

 Portugal and Spain, Sicily, and, in North Africa, parts of 

 Morocco, Algeria, Tunis, and Tripoli, as far as the confines of 

 Egypt. It is very local in its distribution, and has never 

 been proved to wander to any extent. (Yarrell, ed. H. 

 Saunders.) ^ ^ 



THE liAWD RAIL. \^''^ 



Crex prateusis. 



The Land Rail, or Corn Crake, is a regular summer visitor, 

 and although the numbers which arrive vary somewhat in 

 different years, is commonly distributed throughout the 

 county, being perhaps less plentiful in the bare arable parts 



