414 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



p. 182), and probably also in Kerry (Thompson). In Harvey's 

 ' Fauna of Cork,' the bird is said to be perhaps more common 

 than is generally supposed. Messrs. Parker (both ornithologists 

 as well as sportsmen) have not unfrequently met with it for several 

 years past. It has occurred also to Mr. Robert Davis in Tipperary 

 (op. cit., p. 13). A bird of this species was shot near Portrush 

 on the 15th October, 1888, as noted by Mr. Harting. 



Mr. Howard Saunders, in his * Illustrated Manual of British 

 Birds,' p. 495, writes : — " It usually appears in May and departs 

 in October, but birds have been known to remain till mid-winter, 

 and the occurrences recorded from Norfolk in March were more 

 probably due to individuals which had not left the country than 

 to early arrivals." 



But unless we are prepared to admit that a very considerable 

 number of these birds pass the winter in this country (and, except 

 in one or two localities, this supposition is not borne out by the 

 published accounts of local observers), and that these winter 

 residents begin an internal migration of no small extent in March 

 and April, it is difficult (looking at the facts quoted in this paper) 

 to come to any other conclusion than that the spring arrival of 

 the Spotted Crake in England habitually takes place at a con- 

 siderably earlier date than that indicated by Mr. Saunders in the 

 work quoted above. 



Indeed the very fact of the Spotted Crake remaining with us 

 late into the autumn would make us expect it to be an early 

 migrant in spring. With some exceptions, it seems to be a rule 

 that those birds which remain late in autumn arrive early in 

 spring ; and there is no question about the fact of the Spotted 

 Crake habitually remaining here until nearly, or quite, the end of 

 October, and often still later. The Wheatear and Chiffchaff both 

 arrive in March, and I have seen them in October. The Redstart 

 and Blackcap, arriving a little later, both remain until the end of 

 September. On the other hand, the Swift, Spotted Flycatcher, 

 and Turtle Dove, which are all late arrivals, have generally left 

 by the middle of that month (in the case of the Swift, nearly a 

 month earlier) ; while the Corn Crake, which is seldom heard 

 before May, although it probably always reaches us in April, is 

 rarely met with (putting on one side the cases in which it has 

 remained all winter) after the first fortnight of partridge-shooting 

 — here in Oxon at least. 



