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Mr. Harting states that he saw one, but did not secure it, near the Bure, about five miles from 

 Yarmouth, on the 25th of October, 1867. 



Keferring to these recorded occurrences, Mr. Stevenson writes (B. of Norf. ii. p. 399) as 

 follows : — " With the exception of the Bradestone bird recorded by Hunt, which was possibly 

 a Baillon's Crake, I see no reason, from the authorities I have quoted, to doubt the authenticity 

 of any of the above instances. With no less than thirteen occurrences, then, in one county, of a 

 species usually considered so rare, the Little Crake can scarcely be regarded as a merely accidental 

 visitant. If the habits also of the larger and certainly more abundant species of Bail are 

 difficult of observation, how much more so those of the Little and Baillon's Crake ! whose small 

 size and strictly aquatic nature afford every possible means of concealment, render their capture 

 at any time a mere matter of chance. Judging, therefore, from the localities in which our 

 Norfolk specimens have been found, and from the fact that the dates, where known, correspond 

 exactly with the spring and autumn migrations of the Spotted Rails, we may, I think, fairly class 

 the Little Crake (and the same reasoning applies equally to Baillon's) amongst those birds of 

 passage which, for a time at least, periodically frequent our marshes. It is true the nest and 

 eggs of the Little Crake have never been identified in Norfolk, nor, until the summer of 1866, 

 was there any record of those of Baillon's Crake having been taken ; yet in the very same locality 

 (Heigham Sounds) where eggs presumed to be of the latter were discovered by the merest 

 accident, both species have been observed in spring, and both in all probability remain occa- 

 sionally with us to breed. It should, however, be remarked that, with one exception (the 

 locality of which is unknown), the specimens here recorded, though produced within the bounds 

 of the ' broad ' district, were all found in the vicinity of the smaller broads, or on the ' ronds ' 

 bordering upon the Bure and Yare, where it is obvious the chances of flushing them would be 

 infinitely greater than amidst the interminable tracts of reeds which characterize our larger 

 waters. The three examples killed in March were evidently met with on their first arrival, and 

 might, or might not, have continued their journey northwards, while the one in April and the 

 two in May would most probably have remained to breed. Again, the one killed in August had 

 possibly passed the summer with us; and Mr. Harting's bird, in October, may have visited us on 

 its passage southwards." Mr. Cordeaux states (B. of Humber Dist. p. 144) that he flushed a 

 Crake in October 1870 near Great Cotes, which he is sure was a Little Crake, but he did not 

 obtain it. 



In Scotland the present species has occurred only once. Mr. Robert Gray says (B. of W. of 

 Scotl. p. 334) that Mr. Thomas Edward, of Banff, informed him that one was found dead in a 

 plantation in the parish of Grange, Banffshire, on the 12th March 1852. It has also, according 

 to Canon Tristram, been obtained once in Ireland, at Balbriggan, on the 11th March 1854. The 

 Little Crake has not been met with in the Faeroes, and in Scandinavia it is of very rare occur- 

 rence, for it has not been observed in Norway; but Mr. Meves shot one on Gottland in 1856, 

 and, according to Westerlund (Peterm. Mitth. 1870, p. 374), on the 17th June 1862 it was found 

 breeding in the southern part of Kalmar Lan, in Sweden. In Denmark, however, it has been 

 met with more frequently; for Collin says (Skand. Fugl. p. 554) that, according to Boie, it has 

 occurred at Kiel, Scheel says that it has also been met with on Moen, and Teilmann states that it 

 has also occurred on the Yilslev Enge. In Finland the Little Crake has not occurred ; and 



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