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scarcity ; and in like manner, owing to the extreme difficulty with which they are flushed, even 

 on the mown marshes in autumn, the few examples killed yearly by the Snipe-shooter at that 

 season are, I consider, an evidence of many passing wholly unnoticed. 



" Mr. Lubbock speaks of the spring arrivals of this species as occurring with great regularity 

 between the 12th and 20th of March; but of late years I have no record of their appearance 

 earlier than the 21st of that month ; and a female killed on the 23rd of March, 1866, at Ludham, 

 was then forward in egg. During the first week in May, as recorded by Mr. W. R. Fisher in the 

 'Zoologist' of 1843 (p. 248), the eggs of the Spotted Crake have been taken in the neighbour- 

 hood of Yarmouth ; and I have had fresh eggs from Hickling on the 26th of that month, and 

 have seen the young, in their black down, taken on Rockland Broad in the last week of July. 

 With reference to its breeding in Norfolk, Messrs. Sheppard and Whitear remark, ' We have 

 seen a considerable number of its eggs at Yarmouth, which, as well as its young, were found in 

 the neighbourhood of that place — and are also in possession of an egg taken from a female of this 

 species, which was killed in the marshes below Norwich.' It seems probable, however, that they 

 were formerly more abundant in this county than they are now, as Mr. Rising informs me he 

 has killed seven or eight in a day at Horsey, where they are comparatively scarce at the present 

 time. A few years back a nest of this Crake was found by Mr. A. Hammond, jun., on the 

 margin of a reed-bed on Walton Common, near Westacre ; and the small chain of fens on the 

 river Thet, in the south-western part of the county, is also frequented by this species. 



" On two or three occasions I have shot this Crake when looking for Snipe at Surlingham, 

 where both young and old, before their departure in October, frequent the rough marshes 

 surrounding the reed-beds ; but in these localities even a dog well accustomed to the spot will 

 sometimes be baffled altogether by the quickness with which the bird threads its way amongst 

 the tangled grass, or slips round the little tussocks. When too closely pressed, also, and com- 

 pelled to take wing, it not unfrequently flies so low, in a line with the dog, that it pitches again 

 before a safe shot can be had ; and then most probably it drops amongst the reeds, and is seen no 

 more. On the 4th of September, 1861, four were shot at Stalham on the same day; but I 

 find from my notes for the last twenty years that the majority of the specimens brought to our 

 bird-stuffers for preservation have been killed between the 2nd and 29th of October. On the 

 22nd of October, 1856, one old bird and three young of the year were shot at Rockland. About 

 that time, I believe, the greater number take their departure for the south ; but stragglers are 

 occasionally met with throughout November, of which I have records in different seasons on the 

 2nd, 9th, 16th, and 30th. I have also been assured by the marshmen that this Crake may be 

 found at times in midwinter; but one shown me in the flesh on the 2nd 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." Mr. Cordeaux says (B. of Humb. Distr. p. 143) that it is " very 

 locally distributed, but by no means uncommon in certain localities, and on each side of the 

 Humber. In Lincolnshire it is yet tolerably numerous near Ashby, in the wild district near the 

 Trent ; also in the neighbourhood of Tetney, near Grimsby." Further north I find it recorded 

 from Northumberland and Durham by Hancock (B. of North, and Durh. p. 125) as "a resident, 

 and to some extent migratory. It occasionally breeds in the district. A nest of eggs was taken at 



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