THE SPOTTED CRAKE IN THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 403 



Mr. Macpherson has kindly sent me the following additional 

 information about the Spotted Crake in Cumberland : — " I believe 

 that in our mild climate on the west coast some may remain 

 throughout the winter, as I was assured they did in a certain 

 locality, and I have one that had done so, as I stated in the text ; 

 but of course this is the exception, even in our mild climate ; the 

 bird is chiefly an autumn visitor, its presence in spring being 

 evidenced also before the Wild Birds Act existed. In 1889 

 several of these birds occurred in Cumberland ; e. g. in August, 

 one ; September, one ; October, two ; while at the other end of 

 our area, in Furness, three were shot in October. November is 

 similarly favoured. I hear of a few every autumn, and less 

 frequently in spring. A Spotted Crake, evidently on migration 

 (as it was shot as soon as it alighted on the beach), was killed in 

 1888, on March 31st, at Silloth, and sent to me." 



Lancashire. — u Best known as an autumn and winter visitor, 

 and although rare on the whole, there are few districts in which, 



at one time or other, specimens have not been shot No 



actual nest is on record ; but Mr. J. B. Hodgkinson tells me that 

 the species used to be very common on a marsh near Preston, 

 now drained, and that he has often seen young birds there which 



must have been bred close by Lord Lilford informed the 



author that near Tarleton it was not uncommon in September, 

 and Mr. H. P. Hornby is stated to have seen and shot a con- 

 siderable number near St. Michael's-on-Wyre, between September 

 and December" (Mitchell, 'Birds of Lancashire,' p. 167 — 68). 



Yorkshire. — Not rare, " especially in winter ; a few nesting 

 regularly on the sedgy banks of the Hull near Beverley, and at 

 times near York and Doncaster" (Clarke & Boebuck, * Handbook 

 of Yorkshire Vertebrates,' p. 65). 



Nottinghamshire. — " The Spotted Crake has been killed in 

 various parts of this county, and Mr. Felkin states that it has 

 been found breeding on the Trent near Nottingham, but I have 

 no particulars. Those which I have noted have been during 

 their autumnal migrations" (Sterland, 'Descriptive List of the 

 Birds of Nottinghamshire,' p. 52). Mr. Whitaker writes (op. cit.), 

 " Twenty-five of these birds were shot during the autumn of 

 1871, in the neighbourhood of Nottingham, where they breed." 

 This locality (still frequented by the Spotted Crake) is a low- 

 lying, boggy tract of ground close to the town of Nottingham, 



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