318 RALLIDiE. 



Another corncrake lived for three or four years in the same 

 cage with the one described. Having been wounded by a dog, 

 it suffered much for a time after being received, yet ate heartily, 

 and, with great care, soon recovered. This individual never 

 showed the same degree of intelligence or tameness as the other. 

 It was not so partial to washing, perhaps owing to its wounded 

 state, but had the same habit of going to and from the day-cage 

 to the basket where the night was spent. It craked in the 

 season, though not so much as the other, and never exhibited 

 the amusing attitudes at pairing-time which have been alluded 

 to. The sex was not known in either instance. The call is 

 generally attributed by naturalists to the male only. Attempts 

 were made to rear others unsuccessfully : on one occasion a young 

 one was put- into the cage with two old birds, which seemed 

 fond of their charge, and endeavoured to induce it to eat by pre- 

 senting worms in their bills, but ineffectually. 



Mr. Knox, in his agreeable ' Ornithological Rambles in Sus- 

 sex/ mentions as a vulgar belief in the county, that cuckoos 

 become hawks in winter. Such is also a prevalent notion among 

 the uneducated in the north of Ireland. In like manner, it 

 is believed here that the corncrake becomes awaterhen {Gattinula 

 chloropus) in winter. 



Mr. W. R. Wilde, author of the ' Narrative of a Yoyage to 

 Madeira, the Mediterranean/ &c, mentioned to me on his return, 

 that when at Algiers in the month of December he saw several 

 land-rails, and was told that the species wintered there. 



THE SPOTTED RAIL. 



Spotted Crake. 



Crex porzana, Linn, (sp.) 

 Rallies „ „ 



Can only be announced with certainty as an occasional — 

 though probably a regular — summer visitant. 



This beautifully-marked species, spotted delicately with white, as 



