

SPOTTED CRAKE. 537 



In addition to its nesting, the Spotted Crake is a spring 

 and autumn migrant ; at the former season individuals are 

 not uncommonly found killed under the telegraph wires, 

 and were it not for the unfortunate propensity of the bird 

 thus immolating itself, its appearance at this period would be 

 seldom noted. 



In autumn there is a considerable accession to its numbers 

 from August to November ; it is then occasionally observed 

 on the coast line ; my spaniel flushed one amongst the rough 

 benty grass on the Tees Breakwater in September 1900, 

 ,and it also occurs in similar situations at Spurn. In October 

 1890, one was obtained in a clover field at Easby-in-Cleveland. 

 Later in autumn wildfowlers meet with it while shooting in 

 reed beds and rough marshes, and it is sometimes found even 

 in the remote dales of the north-west. In the Beverley 

 district it was fairly common in some years; in the winter 

 of 1863-64 thirty-two were killed, some being quite young 

 birds, which had doubtless bred there ; again in the summer 

 and autumn of 1865 several were procured in various stages 

 of plumage, the first being killed on 30th August ; in the 

 Spurn neighbourhood it was abundant in the autumn of 1889, 

 and continued to be plentiful in Holderness every autumn 

 up to the last few years, but has since been annually shot out, 

 and is now scarce. 



Formerly the Tees marshes were favourite resorts of this 

 bird, and certain spots in its haunts appear to have special 

 attractions, for, if one is killed, its place is soon occupied by 

 another. In connection with this trait in the bird's habits, 

 a rather curious coincidence is communicated to me by Mr. 

 T. T. S. Metcalfe of Roche Court, Salisbury, who says that, 

 while Snipe shooting at Appersett Bottoms, near Hawes, 

 on 5th October 1870, he shot a Spotted Crake, and in the 

 following year he killed another on the 7th of the same month, 

 within twenty yards of where the first fell. 



The only vernacular name is Spotted Rail ; it received 

 the book-name of Spotted Gallinule in the Tunst. MS. (1784) ; 

 and Small Spotted Water Hen is another term given to it in 

 Pothergill's " Richmondshire " (1823). 



