THE SPOTTED CRAKE IN THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 80 



not heard of even one this year (1890). This is no doubt owing 

 to the extraordinary dryness of our meadows since the middle of 

 August. I have only hitherto heard of one Water Kail ; but 

 this species, I feel sure, breeds with us, and does not regularly 

 leave the country, as the Spotted Crake, as a rule, does." 



Lincolnshire. — Mr. G. H. Caton-Haigh has been good enough 

 to send me an interesting account of his experience of this bird 

 in the Lincolnshire marshes. " It is very local," he writes, " and 

 by no means abundant as a breeding species. In the autumn, 

 however, a considerable immigration takes place, and the species 

 is then much more generally distributed. The arrival seems 

 between the beginning of September and the middle of October, 

 after which date they rapidly become scarce, and the latest bird 

 I ever met with I shot on October 27th, 1888. The number 

 appearing in autumn is very variable. Thus in 1889 I frequently 

 flushed five or six in a swamp of less than three acres, while this 

 year I have only seen two or three altogether. The migratory 

 Water Eails come in just in time to fill the place of the Spotted 

 Crake, though I have sometimes found the two together. I 

 consider this bird the easiest of all the Kails to flush, and I can 

 generally succeed in walking one up. I have never seen one 

 caught by the dog, an accident which often happens to the 

 Waterhen, Water Kail, and Corn Crake." The scarcity of the 

 Spotted Crake during the past autumn, alluded to by Mr. Caton- 

 Haigh, has been noticed also by Lord Lilford, who attributes it 

 to the dryness of the meadows ; and I may add that during 

 the past season I did not see a single specimen at the bird- 

 stuffer's. 



Huntingdon. — The reference in my paper to Whittlesea Mere 

 (1890, p. 404), was left in with the Norfolk records by mistake. 

 Anent this record Prof. Newton has been good enough to point 

 out that a false impression is conveyed by my statement. He 

 writes: — "You have been misled by a wicked comma, in the 

 passage from Stevenson's ' Birds of Norfolk" (ii. p. 394, note) 

 that has crept in. The statement should run . . . ' the last nest 

 he has heard of near Whittlesea Mere was in ' .... I had not 

 before observed the intrusive comma, which so entirely alters the 

 meaning of the sentence, and was probably stuck in at the last 

 moment by the printer, for I am sure if Mr. Stevenson had 

 noticed it he would have struck it out." He adds that the 



