S2 BRITISH BIRDS. 



SPOTTED CRAKE IN SUSSEX. 



A Spotted Crake {Porzana maruetta) was captured at the 

 Royal Sovereign Lightship on May 8th, 1906, and a wing sent 

 for identification. /^ t> m 



C. B. TiCEHURST. 



KENTISH PLOVER IN CHESHIRE. 



A SANDY stretch of the shore of Marbury Mere, near North- 

 wich, Cheshire, is a favourite halting place of passing migratory 

 waders and of wanderers from the neighbouring Mersey 

 Estuary, and on many occasions I have seen there small 

 mixed parties of Dunlins and Ringed Plovers. On April 29th, 

 1908, I put up eight birds from the edge of the mere ; six of 

 these were Dunlins in summer dress, and the other two, at 

 iirst sight, looked like small pale Ringed Plovers. There was, 

 however, something in the flight or appearance of the birds 

 which specially attracted my attention ; I was sure they w ere 

 strangers. After a short flight over the water the birds 

 returned to the bank, where they settled and allowed me to 

 a^pproach to within a dozen yards. I then saw that the 

 Plovers lacked the complete pectoral band of ^gialitis hiaticola 

 or jE. curonica, that they were lighter in colour, and were 

 distinctly smaller than the former, for I was able to compare 

 their size with that of the Dunlins. The birds were, I con- 

 cluded, a male and female. The male had a short black band 

 -above his white forehead, black lores and ear-coverts, and a 

 black patch in front of the wing below the white collar. In 

 the female these black regions, with the exception of the 

 lores, were a dark brown. The rest of the plumage was sandy- 

 grey on the upper part, the female being noticeably paler 

 than the male. The bill and legs of both were black, or so 

 ■dark that they appeared black even at close quarters and in 

 an excellent light. The black patches on the aural regions and 

 sides of the neck did not cover quite so large an area as is 

 represented in the figure in Yarrell's " British Birds " (4th 

 Edition, Vol. III., p. 267). In both birds the collar, forehead, 

 stripe above the eye, and underparts were white. In spite of 

 the fact that the Plovers were slightly smaller than the 

 Dunlins, they stood a little higher on their legs. I watched 

 them for nearly three hours, making rough sketches of them 

 and noting down the details of plumage, and was perfectly 

 satisfied that they were Kentish Plovers {^glalitis cantiana), 

 an addition to the Cheshire avifauna. 



In the West of England this species has only hitherto been 

 recorded from Devon and Cornwall, but it has been met with 

 further north than Cheshire on the East Coast. The birds 



