autumn, although in the breeding-season it frequents 
the reed-beds. 
The late Mr. John Hancock, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, 
informed me that, in an egg-collecting expedition to 
Whittlesea and Yaxley fens in 1843, he and his com- 
panion met with the nests and eggs of this species on 
the reed-grown shores of the mere, in numbers almost 
equal to those of the Water-Rail, which was then a very 
abundant resident in the locality. I need hardly tell 
my ornithological readers that the celebrated Whittlesea 
Mere has been drained for more than forty years, and 
its site is now not more interesting, except for old 
association’s sake to the lover of birds, than any other 
“reclaimed ” district ; but it is a remarkable fact that 
of late years the Spotted Crake has visited the valley of 
the Nene in the neighbourhood of our home in North- 
amptonshire very much more frequently than was the 
case before the draining of our nearest fen-lands, in fact 
we now look upon this bird as an almost regular annual 
visitor in August, September, and October. I have not 
hitherto been able, however, to discover that it has ever 
bred in our district. From the nature of its autumnal 
haunts this bird is more easily flushed than the Corn- 
Crake, but it is, in common with that and all the other 
species of the Crake family, very averse to taking wing 
unless hard pressed, although that it certainly does 
travel on wing without any absolute need for so doing is 
proved by the fact that several Spotted Crakes have been 
picked up under telegraph-wires and brought to me 
more or less mutilated by contact with these obstruc- 
tions. ‘This bird is a good swimmer, and can dive well 
