THE SPOTTED-CRAKE 577 



1883 or 1884 eggs were washed out by a flood at Whittlesea Wash, 

 Cambridgeshire. 1 In the valley of the Humber and Trent there are 

 certain spots where it is found in tolerable numbers in certain 

 seasons. Thus Mr. J. Whitaker says that in the autumn of 1878 it was 

 very plentiful in the meadows near Nottingham. One birdstuffer had 

 fourteen and another nine, some quite young birds, brought to him 

 for preservation. 2 In South Derbyshire a nest and six eggs were 

 taken in 1898. 3 The records for Northumberland and Durham date 

 back to the period before the drainage of Prestwick Car, but on the 

 Cumberland side young were found on Wedholm Flow as recently as 

 1881. In Yorkshire Mr. F. Boyes found a nest and eggs in 1882 in 

 Holderness, and a pair bred near Ackworth in 1899. With regard to 

 its supposed breeding in Scotland, the evidence is by no means satis- 

 factory. A nest was found in Kircudbrightshire by Captain A. W. 

 Clark Kennedy, and a bird was obtained in June at Loch Spynie, but 

 definite records of nests found seem to be for the most part lacking, 

 although it is said to have bred in Perthshire and Aberdeen. In 

 Wales it is apparently confined to certain bogs in Breconshire, 

 especially the big marsh at Onllwyn, where it breeds regularly, and it 

 has also nested on the Trath in the same county. There are no 

 recent records of breeding in Ireland, but a nest with nine eggs was 

 undoubtedly taken in Roscommon about 1851, and a young bird 

 which still retained some down was taken in August in Co. Kerry. 



The only detailed notes of the habits of the spotted-crake are to be 

 found in Dr. C. Floericke's account in the new edition of " Naumann," 

 and a paper by Herr E. Ziemer published in the Journal fur Ornithologie 

 for 1884, pp. 184-188. But even here the gaps in our knowledge are 

 very many. According to Floericke, the courtship takes place in the 

 evening twilight or on moonlight nights, and is never noticed in the 

 morning or during the daytime. The cock advances towards the hen 



1 Lilford, Coloured Figures of British Birds, iv. p. 131. 



* Zoologist, 1879, p. 131. 



3 Jourdain, Viet. Hist, of the County of Derby, i. p. 144. 



