Tue ZooLocist—Marcu, 1876. 4845 
account of its retiring habits, seldom seen.—Gevrase F'. Mathew ; Tnstow, 
North Devon. 
[See Zool, ante, 8. 8. 485, H. Newman.] 
White Spotted Crake.—A specimen of a pretty little rail has been received 
at the Zoo. I am doubtful by what name to call it, no name being 
assigned it at the time of my visit. So far as I am able to ascertain, two 
examples only of the bird have been previously received by ornithologists,and 
all three have a similar habitat assigned them—“ captured at sea:” this little 
fellow is under the care of Mr. Travis in the Western Aviary, and appears 
full of health and vigour: he came on board off Santa Maria; the latitude 
and longitude of the other specimens I am unable to give.-—H. Newman. 
Is the Common Waterhen Migratory or not!—In the ‘ Field’ of the 30th 
October last Mr. Cordeaux asks this question, and, though I am unable to 
answer it, I can tell him something about the bird in this district. With 
us on our river the waterhen is certainly not resident all the year, but 
arrives in great numbers in the spring to breed in the coarse grass, sedge 
and reeds which fringe the River Hull all the way north of Beverley, 
to a distance of, say seven miles, which is as far as the tide ebbs and flows, 
and where there is a lock erected across the river: perhaps, to be perfectly 
correct, I ought to say that the tide does not actually run so far up as 
this,—usually not much beyond Beverley,—still it backs up the water and 
enables it to rise considerably as far as this lock. This rising of the water 
causes it to overflow, in many places, the oozy portion of ground between 
the ordinary bed of the river and the real banks—a distance in most places 
of twenty or thirty yards; and this being grown over with sedge, &c., is a 
favourite place of resort for waterhens, spotted crakes, snipes, &e., and as I 
have before stated numbers of the former annually arrive to nest, and 
after having reared their young and moulted—for the waterhen is one 
of those birds which casts all the large feathers of the wings at once, 
and is then wholly unable to fly—they leave us, though it is difficult to say 
where they go; still they must migrate in quantities, as all the blow-wells, 
springs and margins of streams in this neighboorhood are tenanted in the 
summer by waterhens which are there for nesting purposes, and which no 
doubt rear great numbers of young; and before winter comes on, the great 
majority of them leave us, for the number which frequent running streams, 
blow-wells (which never freeze), old moats, &c., then bear no comparison to 
those we have in the summer. Still it is but fair to mention that the 
birds on our river are in a great measure driven away to seek a more shel- 
tered locality, as a large part of the sedge is annually cut and taken away : 
then again the result would be much the same if this mowing did not take 
place, as the tides in the winter are so high that the whole of their haunts 
are submerged, and, shelter being no longer possible, the birds would be 
compelled to migrate elsewhere; and after all, they may leave the country, 
_ SECOND SERIES—VOL. XI. Q 
