190 THE BIKDS OF SUSSEX. 



perfectly dead, though I could not see the slightest appearance 

 of its having been injured, and it was quite warm. I held it 

 by the legs, and, on swinging it about, the neck was perfectly 

 limp, and its eyes were closed. I then put it on its back on 

 my hand, and it remained motionless. I laid it down on a 

 foot-path and watched it for some five minutes, when I saw 

 it open one of its eyes, and almost immediately it ran into 

 the long grass, and, though the dog tried for it a long time, 

 I never saw it again. Since that, I found a notice of a Land- 

 rail behaving in exactly the same way, in the ' Zoologist ' 

 (p. 318 s. s.). Late in September they flock together for 

 emigration. A brother sportsman, and I, once shot four 

 brace and a half, in one clover field, and saw several more, 

 but, the clover being very wet, the dogs could not hunt 

 them, and they would not rise. I have known several 

 instances in April, of their having been, caught in the 

 gardens of Brighton, and I remember one being picked up 

 on the Chain Pier. Mr. Ellman records in 'Zoologist' 

 (p. 2419) that one was shot, and another seen, near the 

 coast just before Christmas 1849, and a third was seen 

 on the Downs near Eastbourne by Mr. Clark Kennedy in 

 November. 



SPOriED CRAKE. 



Porzana maruetta. 



The Spotted Crake arrives in March, and as a rule leaves us 

 in October, but it has now and then been met with in the 

 winter. I shot one myself on Henfield Common in December 

 1845. It is considered rather a rare bird j though, from its 

 skulking habits, requiring a good dog to flush it, I imagine 



