119 



THE LAND-EAIL. 



Crex pratensis Bechst. 



Of this species we have very few records from the coast, 

 and the exact points at which the birds entered the 

 country are not therefore very clear, but it is manifest 

 that their entry was made somewhere along the western 

 haK of the south coast. 



The earliest records point to a small immigration in the 

 south-west between the 15th and 22nd of April, and these 

 birds passed north reaching Lancashire on the 19th, 

 and Durham on the 24th. On this latter date a fresh 

 immigration took place, the birds increasing in Somerset 

 and also apparently arriving in Hampshire, and, as before, 

 these new arrivals spread gradually northwards through 

 Wales and the Welsh border counties, reaching Anglesea 

 on April 26th, Yorkshire on the 27th, and Northumberland 

 on the 28th. 



Subsequent to this immigration, the records point to a 

 small movement through Shropshire and Anglesea to the 

 Isle of Man, where a straggler was recorded on May 1st, 

 and where the bird began to be common a week later. 



It seems an undoubted fact that during this year this 

 species was scarce in the eastern and south-eastern 

 counties. They did not become established in full numbers 

 in the north-east until after the 16th of May, the birds 

 apparently coming entirely from the west. 



Although there is not sufG.cient evidence to show whence 

 the eastern counties received their birds, the dates (Lincoln, 

 May 11th, Cambridge, May 26th) seem to indicate that 

 they came from the west. The few birds recorded from the 

 south-eastern counties as having reached there earlier than 

 the above dates were possibly stragglers from the south-west. 



