30 British Birds with their Nests and Eggs. 



have also been assured by the marsh-men that this Crake may be found at times 

 in mid-winter; but one shown me in the flesh on the and of December, 1868, is 

 the latest I have ever known. As the birds observed thus late in the year are 

 almost invariably in immature plumage, they are most probably the result of a 

 late hatch, and therefore unable to join the earlier migrants." 



The habits of the Spotted Crake are like those of its near allies, it is exceed- 

 ingly secretive, and is far more frequently heard than seen. It seeks shelter in 

 the swampy localities in which it nests, and it is extremely difficult to force it to 

 take wing out of the reeds, through which it seems to creep and glide with great 

 ease. If followed by a dog it usually escapes by running, and it is only when 

 hard pressed that it will take wing, flying a short distance and dropping again 

 into the reeds. Like the other Crakes it flies heavily, the legs usually hanging 

 down behind, although when on migration they are stretched out behind. Dresser 

 does not regard it as a shy bird, afraid of man, as if one moves about quietly 

 when in the vicinity of the nest, or remains quite still, it can often be watched 

 without much difi&culty. D' Urban and Mathew say : — 



" From our own experience in Somerset, the Spotted Crake is a common bird 

 in that county in many places, and we consider it to be a resident there throughout 

 the year. In the neighbourhood of Weston- Super- Mare we used to find young 

 broods in sedgy ponds and ditches, on the level, in July and August. We possessed 

 a very clever setter at the time, who caught the birds in the cover and brought 

 them to our hand. Only when they were very hard pressed did they ever take 

 wing, and, standing on the higher ground above the drain, we have watched them 

 threading their way through the sedge and rushes, running before our dog like 

 rats, and have had them run out from the drain and squat in a little tuft of 

 grass at our feet. Not wanting specimens, and knowing them to be rank of flesh 

 and unfit for the table, we did not molest them ; but we have in earlier years 

 fired at them and shot them, when Snipe shooting, near Taunton, at the end of 

 November, and when we were Sniping on the peat-moors, in Mid- Somerset, we 

 never went there at any time in the winter without finding the Spotted Crake 

 plentiful. On these moors the bird is well known to the local shooters, the men 

 who are always prowling after Snipe and Duck to sell to the game- shops, as the 

 ' Jackymo ' ; and as our dear old setter used always to drop when he was close 

 to his bird, we have walked up to him sometimes to find a ' Jackymo ' sitting 

 on the ground quite unconcernedly between his outstretched fore legs. We have 

 never wandered over the Somerset peat-moors in May and June, but had we done 

 so with our clever dog, we feel confident we should have come across nests and 

 eggs of the Spotted Crake. On the Dartmoor bogs we have never flushed 



