320 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



126. SPOTTED CRAKE. 



Crex porzana. 



This bird is a not very uncommon visitor to the 

 meadows of the Nen, but we have no authentic 

 information as to any discovery of its breeding in 

 our county ; the occurrences of the species in the 

 neighbourhood of Lilford that have come to our 

 knowledge have been in the months of August, 

 September, and October, when the birds were, in all 

 probability, on their southward migration. The 

 Spotted Crake, or Rail, is a vernal migrant to those 

 parts of our country in which it breeds, and generally 

 leaves them towards the end of October. We have 

 met with a good many of these birds in the district of 

 the Broads in East Norfolk in the month of March, 

 and on one occasion found a considerable number 

 in Whittlesea Wash, when we were in pursuit of 

 Snipes there in October. Before the draining of 

 Whittlesea Mere, this species and many others, 

 " whose place now knows them no more," bred in 

 abundance on the borders of the lake. Mr. John 

 Hancock, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, kindly informed me 

 that in an egg-collecting expedition to Whittlesea 

 and Yaxley in 184o, he and his companion met with 

 the nests and eggs of the present species on the reed- 

 grown shores of the mere, in numbers almost equal 

 to those of the Water-Rail (Ballus aquaticus), which 

 was then a very common resident in the locality. 

 Most of the occurrences of the Spotted Crake that 

 have come to our knowledge in the neighbourhood of 

 Lilford have been in very wet years ; in August and 

 September of 1880, when all our meadow-grass, cut 



