BIRDS OF THE HUMBER DISTRICT. 143 



* " crek" kept up during the whole of the short summer 

 nights, not only in the meadow-lands, but in every 

 part of the parish, we had very considerable numbers 

 located in the district. Curious enough, however, 

 since this period it appears to have entirely left the 

 neighbourhood, as during the dry seasons of 1868-70, 

 and now in 1871, I have never heard its call. 

 The Corncrake lives almost exclusively on insects; 

 I have found the larva of Agrotis segetum in the 

 gizzard. 



192. CREX PORZANA (Linnaeus). Spotted Crake. 



Very locally distributed, but by no means un- 

 common in certain localities and on each side of the 

 Humber. In Lincolnshire it is yet tolerably numerous 

 near Ashby, in the wild district near the Trent ; also 

 in the neighbourhood of Tetney near Grimsby. Mr. 

 Morris, in his ' British Birds/ on the authority of 

 the Rev. R. P. Alington, speaks of it " as common 

 in a small piece of fen, called the " small drains," in 

 the parish of North Cotes, but he has never seen it 

 after October." 



In Yorkshire it is met with each year in consider- 

 able numbers in the sedges and other aquatic vegeta- 

 tion bordering the banks of the river Hull. 



Mr. Boulton (Zoologist, 1864, p. 8890), writing of 

 this species, says: " I have seen no less than sixteen 

 specimens already this year ; and others have been 

 seen that were not captured. Up to October 13th 



