RALLID^E. 235 



they are not infrequent, more especially on the 

 arable portion of the Downs. They are often 

 flushed by sportsmen during September in clover 

 fields, and are then excessively fat and highly 

 prized by epicures. 



Mr. Yarrell records an instance of two shooters 

 in the neighbourhood of Battle, in this county, 

 killing "fifteen couple of landrails in one day, and 

 seven couple the next day." This of course was 

 an extraordinary occurrence. 



SPOTTED CRAKE, Crex porzana. Arrives from 

 the continent about the latter end of March or 

 early in April, and examples have at that period 

 been occasionally taken in an exhausted state, 

 within the precincts of the town of Brighton. 

 After a dark stormy night, in the spring of 1841, 

 a spotted crake was found alive in the churchyard 

 of Trinity Chapel, probably attracted like many 

 other migratory birds which have been captured 

 in the gardens and even in the areas of the houses 

 by the long line of gas-lights which extends al- 

 most without interruption from Brunswick Terrace 

 to Kemp -Town. 



Specimens have been shot near Storrington in 

 the autumn, and several were killed during the 

 month of October, 1841, on Henfield Common. 



LITTLE CRAKE, Crex pusilla. A little crake 

 was caught alive a few years ago near Beeding 



