BIRDS 



209. Baillon's Crake. Porzana bailloni (Vieil- 



lot). 

 The first example of Baillon's crake that 

 lias occurred in Sussex is recorded in the 

 Zoologist (p. 4159) by Captain Clark Kennedy 

 as having been captured at Eastbourne on 

 August 6, 1874. Another has since been 

 obtained, September, 1894, near Brighton and 

 is now in the Booth's Museum. 



210. Water-Rail. Ra//us aguatici/s, hinn. 

 Generally distributed and found frequenting 



the coarse herbage that grows along streams 

 and ditches. The water-rail seems to neglect 

 its safety somewhat during frosty weather, for 

 it may be seen sitting in the open, huddled 

 up with cold and almost fearless of man. 



211. Moor-hen. Ga/linu/a ch/oropus (Linn.) 

 Abundant and resident. 



212. Coot. Fu/Ica atra, Linn. 



A common and resident bird in suitable 

 ponds and lakes. I have noticed that the 

 coots on Warnham Pond near my house will 

 sit on the ice for three days when the lake is 

 frozen over ; if the frost continues they then 

 repair to a grass field contiguous to the pond 

 for one day or more, and then should there be 

 no chance of a thaw they leave for the 

 estuaries or the sea and do not return till 

 April. 



213. Crane. Grus communis, Bechstein. 

 Two are recorded, the first from Pevensey 



Level, May, i 849, and the second being killed 

 at Pagham, October 18, 1854 (Borrer). 



214. Great Bustard. Otis tarda, Linn. 

 Formerly this magnificent bird was common 



in Sussex, and small parties of them were seen 

 as late as 18 10. Gilbert White writing to 

 his friend, Daines Barrington, in October, 

 1770, says, 'There are bustards on the wide 

 downs near Brighthelmstone.' It was for- 

 merly a favourite sport of the Sussex country 

 gentlemen to course the young birds of this 

 species with greyhounds. There is an ac- 

 count of the capture of one of these birds 

 mentioned in Yarrell's British Birds, when a 

 female was shot on the downs near Eastbourne 

 January 14, 1876. A very large bird ap- 

 peared in a field near Horsham in April, 1899, 

 and from the description given to me by the 

 farmer and one of his labourers I have little 

 doubt that it was a bird of this species. A 

 female great bustard was shot by Charles 

 Cooke, a watcher on Pett level, on January 

 5, 1891 [Zoologist, 1891, p. 104). 



29 



215. Little Bustard. Otis tetrax, Linn. 



There are four instances on record of the 

 occurrence of the little bustard in Sussex. 

 Specimens have been shot at Cuckmcre, 

 October, 1846, and at Bosham near Chiches- 

 ter (Borrer), whilst in the Zoologist two others 

 are mentioned, the first having been killed 

 at Eastbourne December 11, 1879, and the 

 second at Clymping near Arundel in October, 

 1887. It seems that the little bustard only 

 visits us as a rare straggler in winter. A little 

 bustard was killed in December, 1900, by 

 the Hon. John Ashburnham while partridge 

 shooting at Ashburnham. Another has since 

 been seen in the same neighbourhood. 



216. Stone-Curlew. (Edicnemus scolopax (S. 



G. Gmelin). 

 Arriving in April and departing as a rule in 

 September the stone-curlew still visits the 

 county in small numbers especially in the 

 neighbourhood of the South Downs and on 

 their southern slope. Many instances have 

 occurred of specimens being seen and taken 

 in the winter. 



217. Dotterel. Eudromias tnorinellus {Linn.) 



The South Down about Brighton and Sea- 

 ford is one of the first landing places touched 

 by this beautiful plover on its northward 

 migration in spring. The birds come in 

 small flocks of from six to a dozen and do 

 not stay for many days, and fewer trips visit 

 us every year. So far as I have been able to 

 ascertain, after leaving us the dotterel pursue 

 a north-easterly course, resting in some num- 

 bers on the Gog Magog Hills in Cambridge 

 and again in Yorkshire, whence they move on 

 directly to the Grampians and Aberdeenshire 

 hills, where a few still breed. 



218. Ringed Plover. /Egialitis hiaticula 



(Linn.) 



Common and resident along the coast. 

 They are partially migratory in spring and 

 autumn. 



219. Little Ringed Plover. /Egialitis curonica 



(J. F. Gmelin). 

 A very rare visitor. Two are recorded by 

 Borrer. The first killed at West Wittering, 

 May (no date given), is in the Borrer collec- 

 tion. The second was shot by Mr. Dennis 

 at Tide Mills Creek, Bishopstone, on August 

 28, 1865. In the Zoologist (p. 3279) Mr. 

 Ellman states that he obtained a specimen of 

 this bird in Sussex during the latter part of 

 September, 1 85 1. 



