THE SPOTTED CRAKE IN THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 415 



Bearing strongly upon this point is the date given by Prof. 

 Giglioli of its spring arrival in Italy ('Avifauna Italica,' 1886, 

 p. 350), in a passage which may be thus translated : — " It comes 

 among us in March, and sometimes sooner, .... and leaves us 



at the end of October or in November One shot as late as 



the 29th December (1884) in the province of Venice." 



At least three-fourths of the Spotted Crakes noticed in Oxford- 

 shire occur at the periods of migration. I have notes of examples 

 picked up dead under the telegraph-wires on the 14th March, 1881, 

 and the 10th March, 1887, and have known of the occurrence of 

 others in April. A considerable proportion of the specimens 

 procured here are killed in this manner ; these it is pretty certain 

 must have been on migration at the time ; and, from the absence 

 of any records of the birds striking the wires in May, it is 

 reasonable to suppose that no immigration to Oxfordshire takes 

 place during that month. It would be interesting if ornithologists 

 would place upon record the dates of any spring arrivals of the 

 Spotted Crake which have come under their notice, for on looking 

 through the published accounts and notices of the bird the small 

 amount of actual evidence upon this point is remarkable. 



In searching through the * Reports on Migration of Birds ' by 

 the Migration Committee, the paucity of entries relating to 

 P. maruetta is remarkable. In the five reports I have by me 

 (1882 — 1886) there is only one spring note, and that is un- 

 trustworthy. Altogether there are only four entries for Great 

 Britain and Ireland — viz., 1884, Redcar, 2nd Sept., one; 

 1885, Spurn, 23rd Oct., one ; Rathlin Island, May 12th, one 

 " Spotted Crake," June 30th, another seen. But as this species 

 is not included in the " List of Birds noticed " on the Irish coast, 

 it is evident that the reporters considered these two last records 

 more than doubtful. 



Mr. Howard Saunders writes of it as " visiting Heligoland 

 on both migrations, especially in that of May." But I do not 

 find any May occurrences entered in Herr Gatke's " Ornithological 

 Almanack," included in the Migration Committee's Report for 

 1885, the only entry relating to P. maruetta being on Aug. 22nd, 

 " some." In the same observer's " Bird Notes from Heligoland 

 for the year 1886" ('Naturalist,' reprint, No. II.) there is no 

 mention at all of the Spotted Crake, so that it certainly does not 

 occur there very numerously or very regularly. Even if there is 



