THE SPOTTED RAIL. 319 



if a snow-shower had fallen ou it, is much less known than might 

 be in consequence of its habits and the nature of its haunts, 

 which are generally bogs or marshes. Erorn Mr. Templeton's MS. 

 we learn that three specimens had come under Ins notice, in addi- 

 tion to two seen in the rushy fields of his own farm, near Belfast. 



I shall give here the occurrence of the species as known to me 

 from north to south of the island, rather than according to dates. 

 The first which came under my observation was an adult bird shot 

 in summer about the year 1822 at brick-fields, contiguous to the 

 Blackwater in the outskirts of the town of Belfast, since which 

 period two others have been procured about the same locality : — 

 Mr. J. R. Garrett informs me as follows : — " On the 12th, 27 th, 

 and 28th of September of the years 1835, 1847, and 1848, I 

 procured specimens of the spotted rail in a large marsh overrun 

 with reeds and other aquatic plants, situated about a mile from 

 Clough (Antrim), where the species is not uncommon in autumn, 

 although I have never been able to find it there in winter. These 

 specimens were so thickly coated with fat that it was almost impos- 

 sible to get the skins freed from it : their flesh was remarkably 

 tender and delicate in flavour. 



" Water-rails, which I shot on the same occasions and in the 

 same marsh, had not a particle of fat on them. 



" In the gullet of one of the spotted rails above alluded to, 

 I found two unbroken shells, and in the stomach were fragments 

 of the same kind of shell, together with black gravelly matter.* 

 It is extremely difficult, even with the assistance of a dog, to com- 

 pel these birds to take wing ; but I have seen them, when raised, 

 fly with rapidity for several hundred yards before alighting.'" 



In the vicinity of Bogay House (Donegal) a spotted rail was ob- 

 tained about the year 1828. In November 1845 one was killed 

 near Downpatrick (Down). In March 1833, two native specimens 

 came under my notice in private collections in Dublin. On the 

 25th of October, 1835, one was shot at Portrane (Dublin) ;f 



* Two fall-grown specimens of Limneus palustris are alluded to ; minute seeds 

 of plants were in the stomach. 



t August 1849, one was received by a bird-preserver in the metropolis. 



