190 THE BIRDS OF SUSSEX. 



perfectly dead^ thougli I could not see tlie slightest appearance 

 of its having been injured^ and it was quite warm. I held it 

 by the legs, and, on swinging it about, the neck was perfectly 

 limp, and its eyes were closed. I then put it ou its back on 

 my hand_, and it remained motionless. I laid it down on a 

 foot-path and watched it for some five minutes, when I saw 

 it open one of its eyes, and almost immediately it ran into 

 the long grass, and, though the dog tried for it a long time, 

 I never saw it again. Since that, I found a notice of a Land- 

 rail behaving in exactly the same Avay, in the ' Zoologist ' 

 (p. 218 s. s.). Late in September they flock together for 

 emigration. A brother sportsman, and I, once shot four 

 brace and a half, in one clover field, and saw several more, 

 but, the clover being very wet, the dogs could not hunt 

 them, and they would not rise. I have known several 

 instances in April, of their having been caught in the 

 gardens of Brighton, and I remember one being picked up 

 on the Chain Pier. Mr. Ellman records in ' Zoologist ' 

 (p. 2419) that one was shot^ and another seen, near the 

 coast just before Christmas 1849, and a third was seen 

 on the Downs near Eastbourne by Mr. Clark Kennedy in 

 November. 



SPOTTED CRAKE. 



Porzana maruetta. 



The Spotted Crake arrives in March^ and as a rule leaves us 

 in October, but it has now and then been met with in the 

 winter. I shot one myself on Henfield Common in December 

 1845. It is considered rather a rare bird ; though, from its 

 skulking habits, requiring a good dog to flush it, I imagine 



