440 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 



yellowish brown. The young birds in their dowii 

 feathers are black, and not unlike little Moorhens. 



The eggs are a pale creamy chesnut, spotted 

 mostly at the thicker end with chesnut and purplish 

 chesnut. 



SPOTTED CRAKE, Crex porzana. This is by no 

 means a common bird in our county, although pos- 

 sibly it may not be quite so rare here as is generally 

 supposed, for its very retired habits, the localities 

 which it frequents, and the ease with which it runs 

 through and conceals itself amongst the thickest 

 herbage, from which it is by no means easy to rise 

 it, keep it from general observation. 



Whether this bird is resident or migratory may 

 appear doubtful. There is a note in the ' Zoologist,' 

 by the Rev. Murray A. Mathew, of his having shot 

 two as late as the 18th of November, and it makes 

 its appearance again as early as the middle of March ; 

 but there seems to be only one record of its having 

 been obtained between those times, and that is by 

 Yarrell, who says one was obtained in the London 

 market in January, 1834. 



The food of the Spotted Crake appears to consist 

 chiefly of worms, slugs, aquatic insects, small water 

 and marsh snails, water plants, seeds, and other soft 

 vegetable substances.* 



* Yarrell, vol. in., p. 114; Meyer, vol. v., p. 119; and 

 the ' Zoologist' for 1864, p. 8890. 



