RALLID^— CRAKES. :>25 



dent, for specimens are occasionally met with in winter. In 1826, Mr. 

 Parsons killed one (8) at Southchurch Wick as late as Nov, 7th. 



Mr. C. H. Hills informs me that, about the middle of September, 1887, a par- 

 tridge-shooting party killed fifteen of these birds in one day in a field near Pod's 

 Wood, Messing. On June 29th, 1881, Mr. Travis took a nest with ten eggs close 

 to Walden, and in May, 1888, a pair nested at Peering. Mr. Clarke says (24) it 

 " occasionally breeds " there. In Epping Forest it is " a summer visitor, nesting 

 and remainmg till the middle of September" (Buxton — 47. 94). According to 

 King (20), in 1838, it was then " not a very common bird " in the neighbourhood 

 of Sudbury. The Rev. J. C. Atkinson says (36. 133) : " I do not remember ever 

 hearing its breeding note while I was a dweller in the district embracing what are 

 usuall}' called the Eastern Counties." Round Orsett,' Mr. Sackett says it is " not 

 common." A nest, taken at Mucking in July, 1887, is the only one he has met 

 with in that district. Round Harwich, it breeds not uncommonly (Kerry). 

 Mr. Clarke, in 1845, wrote (24) it " occasionally breeds " round Saffron Walden, 

 but in a recent letter he says : — 



" I have not heard their 'crake ' for twenty years until this year. A pair have 

 just hatched their young close at hand. The young ones are very shy but our 

 foreman's children have caught several and let them go again. They are per- 

 fectly black." 



Though by no means common during summer, I have occasionally heard its 

 breeding note ; as at Chignal St. James on June i6th, 1876, May 5th and June 

 nth, 1882, at Newport on June gth, 1881, at Stanford Rivers on June 19th, 

 1883, &c. I have been assured that it was once common with us. Mr. Herbert 

 Marriage met with one near Chelmsford, on Dec. 9th, 1877. 



Green-backed Gallinule : Porphyria smaragdonotus. 



An African bird which, though only a straggler north of the 

 Mediterranean, has several times occurred in Norfolk and once in 

 Essex. I quite agree with Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun. {Birds of Nor/oik, 

 p. 34), that it has as good a claim to a place on the British List as 

 many other birds which have been admitted. A considerable cor- 

 respondence upon this point took place in the Field between Nov. 

 i6th, 1878, and Jan. 4th, 1879. 



An adult female, bearing no signs of having ever been in confinement, was shot 

 by Mr. H. N. Dunnet jun., of Jupes Hill (in whose possession it still is) at 

 Dedham, on Oct. 30th, 1878, and shown to Dr. Bree in the flesh. There had been 

 a fall of snow that morning. It was preserved by Ambrose (29. Nov. 16 and 30). 



Moorhen : Gallimila chloropus. 



An abundant resident on the banks of lakes, ponds and 

 rivers ; especially common during winter, when its numbers are 

 greatly increased in Essex by arrivals from elsewhere. 



At the time of the very severe frost of Dec. 7th, 1879, when the mercury fell 

 below zero, they were very common here and I saw them frequently perching on 

 trees. Lieut. Legge says (34. 604) it was very numerous in the marshes on the 

 coast in 1865, and the Rev. J. C. Atkinson has given (23. 497) an interesting 

 account of their habits, as observed on the Essex Marshes and elsewhere. In 

 May, 1880, I saw a nest eleven feet from the ground in the fork of an ash tree 



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