82 The Birds of Cambridgeshire 



The compiler took two broods in one season, which he turned 

 down, after having pinioned them, with the common geese." 



8. Porzana maruetta (Leach). Spotted Crake. 



Though the Water Rail, of which an occasional pair may 

 still be found breeding in this county, occurs in winter as well 

 as in summer, its near relation the Spotted Crake is a migrant 

 from abroad. This of itself would make it more difficult 

 to define its status, while the bird's skulking nature often 

 prevents it from being observed. On the other hand, if an 

 individual is detected in spring, it is probable that it intends 

 to remain for the summer, and we may hope that future in- 

 vestigations will show that this species has not entirely ceased 

 to breed with us, for it seems to have been common, at least 

 in some years, up to about 1850, and it does not require so 

 large an extent of sedge as do some other marsh birds. 



9. Porzana bailloni (Vieillot). Baillon's Crake. 



In the Zoologist for 1859 (p. 6329), and again in Gould's 

 Birds of Great Britain, will be found an account of the dis- 

 covery of two nests of this Crake in Cambridgeshire, in June 

 and August 1858 respectively, some of the eggs being now in 

 the Wolley collection at the University Museum of Zoology. 

 The breeding of this species in England was corroborated by the 

 further discovery of two other nests attributed to it, in 1866, 

 on the Norfolk Broads; but these instances appear to have 

 been quite exceptional. The somewhat similar Little Crake 

 (P. parva) has not yet been proved to breed in Britain. 



10. Grus communis (Bechstein). Crane. 



Dr William Turner, writing in 1544, says of this bird, 

 "Apud Anglos etiam nidulantur grues in locis palustribus, 

 et earum pipiones saepissime vidi," which, if it cannot be 

 taken precisely as evidence that the Crane bred at that 

 time in Cambridgeshire, makes it at least somewhat more 

 than probable, as Turner was a Cambridge man, who held 



