334 BIRDS OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND. 



THE LITTLE CRAKE. 



CREX PUS ILL A. 



A SINGLE specimen only of this modestly coloured species appears 

 to have been met with in Scotland, and I record the circumstance 

 here on the authority of Mr Thomas Edward of Banff, who has 

 informed me that the bird was found dead in a plantation on the 

 banks of the Isla at Thornton, in the parish of Grange, Banffshire, 

 on the 12th March, 1852. This is probably the same Banffshire 

 specimen which is alluded to by Mr Yarrell in the last edition of 

 his work on British Birds, published in 1856, though neither date 

 nor precise locality is given. 



BAILLON'S CRAKE. 

 CREX BAILLONII. 



SIR William Jardine appears to be the only writer on British birds 

 who has found this bird in Scotland. In his excellent manual, 

 published in 1842, he describes a specimen that was shot on a moss 

 near Lockerbie. This is probably the only one obtained north of 

 the Tweed, with the exception of that referred to by the late Mr 

 James Wilson in his voyage round Scotland, as having been pro- 

 cured in Caithness-shire by Mr Sinclair of Wick, and preserved in 

 that gentleman's collection. 



THE WATER RAIL. 



RALLUS AQUATIC US. 



THE Water Rail is commonly distributed over the whole of Scot- 

 land, including the Outer Hebrides and the Orkney and Shetland 

 islands. I have obtained specimens from the counties of Argyle, 

 Ayr, Inverness, Perth, Moray, Banff, Aberdeen, Forfar, Fife, 

 East Lothian, Berwick, and Wigtown; also from, the islands 

 of Harris, North Uist, Lewis (where it is plentiful), Skye, Mull, 

 and lona. It is also met with in Ross and Sutherlandshires. In 

 some of the midland and eastern counties it appears to be resident 

 all the year, and the same, indeed, may be said of it in some of 

 the inner islands, where, from the want of vegetation or brushwood 



