THE SPOTTED CRAKE IN THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 411 



Dorset,' pp. 71, 72). Mr. E. Hart, of Christchurch, writes that 

 he has seen the Spotted Crake in Dorset, but does not consider 

 that it is quite so common in this county as in Hants. 



Devonshire. — Montagu, in his ' Ornithological Dictionary,' 

 writes : — " We have met with it as early as the 1st of April, and 

 as late as the middle of October," remarking that it was rather 

 scarce and certainly migratory. In the 'Supplement' to this 

 work he mentions having " obtained this species as early as the 

 14th of March, and as late in the year as the 23rd of October 

 in Devonshire, but never in the winter months.' 1 Two from 

 Montagu's collection are preserved in the Natural History 

 Museum, South Kensington. Moore, in his ' Catalogue of the 

 Birds of South Devon,' after referring to Montagu's remarks 

 above quoted, mentions five specimens procured in South Devon, 

 but without giving dates or localities. Bowe also includes this 

 bird in his 'Catalogue of the Birds of Devon,' 1863, p. 31. 

 Mr. "W. S. D'Urban, writing in 1875, remarks that the Spotted 

 Crake is sometimes met with in South Devon in September, and 

 that the late Mr. F. W. Boss once had as many as six freshly- 

 killed specimens in his possession at one time, killed in September 

 (Sketch Nat. Hist. S. Devon, in the ' Handbook of S. Devon and 

 Dartmoor'). In the latest Devonshire list by Mr. Edward Parfitt 

 (1876), the Spotted Crake is included as "not common; but 

 specimens occasionally met with. One was found on the Tavistock 

 Bailway last year (1875) dead, probably killed by flying against 

 the telegraph-wires, and three others were procured in the marshes 

 near Newton." 



Cornwall. — " Sportsmen who traverse the snipe-marshes and 

 wet moors often come across this bird in winter ', and in some 



years it is not uncommon at this season I know of no 



instance of its remaining with us during the nesting-season'* 

 (Bodd's 'Birds of Cornwall,' p. 135). He adds (p. 290) that on 

 the 4th October, 1870, a Spotted Crake was shot at St. Mary's, 

 Scilly, where this bird is occasionally met with in autumn and 

 winter (p. 302). 



In Wales the Spotted Crake has been noticed in the following 

 counties : — 



Breconshire. — " A regular visitant, but very local. ... On 

 the Trath, a large bog on Mynydd Illtyd, near Brecon, it is to be 

 found every year ; but the favourite spot for them in this county 



