404 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



adjoining the river Trent. It has been formed by subsidence of 

 the ground, consequent upon mining operations. 



Lincolnshire. — "Numerous during September and October, 

 all over the district. I have seen a considerable number at the 

 birdstuffers' shops, the greater proportion being birds of the year. 

 Three, all immature, were obtained near Spurn. The Spotted 

 Crake is known to breed in at least two localities in North 

 Lincolnshire. We have considerable additions to the local birds 

 in autumn" (Cordeaux, * Naturalist,' 1889, p. 7). 



Norfolk. — " Visits us regularly in spring, and, though 

 chiefly confined to the Broad and Fen districts, is by no means 



uncommon between the months of March and October 



Lubbock speaks of the spring arrival of this species as occurring 

 with ' great regularity between the 12th and 20th 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 March, 1866, 

 at Ludham, was then forward in egg" (Stevenson, * Birds of 

 Norfolk,' vol. ii. p. 393). This author mentions eggs taken during 

 the first week in May (as recorded by Mr. W. K. Fisher) in the 

 neighbourhood of Yarmouth, and that he had fresh eggs from 

 Hickling on the 26th of that month, and had seen the young in 

 their black down, taken on Rockland Broad, in the last week in 

 July. He quotes a note of Messrs. Sheppard and Whitear, who 

 write : — " We have seen a considerable number of its eggs at 

 Yarmouth, which, as well as its young, were found in the neigh- 

 bourhood 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." Mr. Stevenson thinks Spotted Crakes were 

 formerly more abundant in Norfolk than at the time he wrote 

 (1870), for Mr. Rising informed him he had killed seven or eight 

 in a day at Horsey, " where they are comparatively scarce at the 

 present time." Prof. A. Newton told him that the last nest he 

 had heard of was in 1849, near Whittlesea Mere, where the species 

 used to abound formerly. A nest found a few years previously 

 on the margin of a reed-bed on Walton Common, near Westacre, 

 is also mentioned by Mr. Stevenson, who adds that the small chain 

 of fens on the river Thet, in South-west Norfolk was also 

 frequented by the Spotted Crake. From his notes for the last 

 twenty years, this author found that the large majority of speci- 

 mens taken to the birdstuffers were killed between the 2nd and 



