1920 The Zoologist — November, 1869. 



Abundance of LandraiU. — The landrail has been unusually abuiulanl this season 

 in this neighbouihuod. I have seen and heard of upwards of a dozen captures. — 

 T. E. Gunn ; Norwich. 



Gray Pkalarope in Sussex. — Three specimens of the gray phalarope have been 

 recently shot in the county of Sussex, oue of which was taken to Pratt and the other 

 two to Swaysland. — T. W. Won/or. 



Rednecked Phalarope in the Neighbourhood of Pit/mouth. — A beautiful specimen 

 of the rednecked phalarope [Phalaro/ms hyperboreus), in perfect summer plumage, was 

 killed, on the 7th of June last, on the Hamoaze, just offTorpoint. The occurrence of 

 tills species on the coasts of Devon and Cornwall is very rare at any season, but its 

 appearance in summer is most remarkable; iudeed I had never before seen but one 

 Devonshire specimen, and that was obtained in the autumn, and on reference to the 

 volumes of the ' Zoologist ' from the year 1845 to 1868 I find that all ihe specimens, 

 save one, recorded in that publication as having been obtained in England, were killed 

 during the autumn. At any rate the subject of the present notice is the first recorded 

 Devonshire specimen in summer plumage, and the only one, in June, on any pint of 

 the coasts of England. It was first observed swimming about on the water in an 

 elegant manner, jierforming the most graceful and sprightly evolutions in securing its 

 food on the surface. Some boatmen tried to capture or knock it down with their oars, 

 but being unsuccessful it was afterwards shot. It seems strange that allliough ihis 

 {.pecics breeds in Scotland so few arc obtained on our coast; and among the hundreds 

 of gray phalaropes that I have ex.imined from time to lime captured on the coasl of 

 Devon I could delect but one example of the rednecked species. — John Gutcombe. 



American Slint al Northaiii Burrows. — I have just seen the skin of an American 

 stint which was shot on Norlham Burrows in September. The owner, who shot it, 

 saw that the bird was remarkable in (light and note, and compared it with the de- 

 scription in Newman's edition of Montagu's Dictionary. I have told Mr. Vingoe, to 

 whom the bird was sent, and who has examined the specimen with me this evening, 

 to desire the owner to communicate the case to the ' Zoologist,' or let me do so. — 

 Edward Ilearle Rodd ; October 14, 1802. 



Nesl and Eggs of the Com Crake. — Early in June a nest of the corn crake was found 

 in an orchard- in the town : it was cut out of a bed of nellies al the foot of a large elm 

 by the gardener, who observed the old bird skulking away among the long grass: it 

 contained nine hard-set eggs. The nest is loosely constructed of coarse grass, inter- 

 spersed with a few leaves of the nettle and ivy, a dry stalk or two, a bit of moss, and a 

 few small feathers of a yellowish while colour, which may have fallen from the breast 

 of the bird. In shape the nest is not unlike a large plate, rounded oflF towards the border ; 

 external diameter nine inches ; internal diameter about four inches and a half. As 

 neither Montagu nor Bewick mentions the size of the egg, and as Macgillivray has 

 made an unaccountable mistake about it, stating that the egg is two inches and one- 

 twelfth in length by one inch and four-twelfths in breadth, and as the error is repeated 

 in ihe ' Abstract,' it may be as well to give the exact measurements of one of these eggs, 

 which was one inch and a half in length by one inch and one-eighth in breadth. One 

 of the eggs is quite differently coloured from the rest, being of a grayish while, with a 

 slight bluish tinge, profusely spotted with reddish brown at the broad end, the whole 

 intermixed with faintly clouded bluish gray blotches, the spots diminishing in size 

 and number towards ihe point. Most of ihe eggs are of a light drab colour, with a 



