932 Birds. 



lowing month. I have had one brought me, which was caught alive 

 in Bonchurch, so late as October 26th. R. Loe showed me a little 

 piece of damp ground on Pan Common, where he one day, a few years 

 back, found ten landrails, and bagged nine of them. 



The Spotted Crake appears to be a winter visitor with us. I have 

 a specimen that was caught in Bordwood Forest, October 1, 1842. 

 R. Loe has killed three, all in winter. Mr. H. Dennett has killed 

 three, also in winter : and Mr. Hodges killed one in February, 1844. 

 These are all the instances of its occurrence I have been able to as- 

 certain. 



The Water Rail is also a winter visitor. I cannot ascertain that it 

 has ever been seen during summer. In 1 839 I found two, and shot 

 one of them, as early as September 12th ; but, from the situation in 

 which they were found, I am satisfied they were migratory birds on 

 their passage along the coast, most probably to the eastward, intend- 

 ing to cross the channel where it is narrowest ; as 1 think many of our 

 smaller short- winged birds do. I fell in with these birds among some 

 brush-wood, on the slope of the cliff some two hundred feet above the 

 sea, — no situation for a water rail to frequent, — and had they been 

 there many days, T must have found them before. In the winter, wa- 

 ter-rails are common enough ; I have found one during two winters 

 at a spring within a stone's throw of my house at Bonchurch. This 

 winter (1844-5) they have been unusually abundant. My friend Mr. 

 Dawson and self found six in one day, in January, in the marshes ; 

 and a few days after, we found five in the same osier-bed ; and this, 

 with the aid of my Newfoundland dog only. On the first day we bag- 

 ged four, and on the latter, three of those we found. 



The Moorhen abounds, and breeds with us. Last year (1844), a 

 pair reared their family on a pond by the road-side in the village of 

 Bonchurch. The female of this pair amused me not a little one day 

 in the autumn. She had found an apple of moderate size, and was 

 busily feeding on it by the water's side. Twice did it roll into the 

 pond, and was as often drawn out and up the bank by the bill of the 

 bird. I watched her, thus engaged, for some minutes ; when, on the 

 approach of a Muscovy duck, as if afraid of having her prize forcibly 

 taken from her, she raised the apple in her bill, and ran off among the 

 sedge. I marvelled somewhat to see the bird feed on the apple, but 

 much more to witness her power of raising the apple, and carrying it 

 with her bill. I entirely agree with Mr. Atkinson (Zool. 498) that the 

 moorhen has not the power of remaining submerged in open water ; 



