90 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Mere was drained in 1851-2. Those who possess the volume 

 referred to will be glad to correct the foot-note by deleting the 

 offending comma. 



Cambridge shiee. — Professor Newton adds, in regard to this 

 county, " If I am not mistaken I have had, or seen, eggs from 

 Cambridgeshire since 1849, though none, I should say, for thirty 

 years, or perhaps more." Mr. G. J. Ground (11, Walpole Street, 

 Chelsea) has favoured me with some valuable particulars 

 respecting the Spotted Crake in the north of this county. He 

 writes : — " From Whittlesea Wash, in Cambridgehire, a tract of 

 meadowy marsh land commencing near Peterborough and 

 running east about fifteen miles, I obtained, in the autumn of 

 1873, four Spotted Bails : as far as I can remember, two were 

 old birds, and two birds of the year. About ten years later, 

 in 1883 or 1884, there was a late spring flood on the Washes, 

 and, when walking on the South Bank one morning, I found the 

 remains of two eggs of the Spotted Bail, which had evidently 

 been carried there by a Crow and eaten. One was irretrievably 

 wrecked ; about two-thirds of the other remained. I mended it, 

 and it is still in my possession, The eggs were both fresh, and 

 had, no doubt, been exposed to view by the action of the water. 

 They were most interesting to me, as proving, what I had always 

 thought likely, that Bails nested in a strip of flag about seventy 

 yards wide, extending for a mile or so by the side of the Cam. 

 Cattle have the run of the sedge during summer, but that might 

 not interfere with the nesting of Bails. It is probable that the 

 Spotted Crake still nests in the locality I have spoken of. Almost 

 every year I hear of some being killed. I obtained one in 

 September, 1889 — a young bird. I am hardly often enough in 

 the district to say whether the species is increasing there, bat my 

 impression during the last few years has been that it is more 

 often shot than formerly." 



Norfolk. — Prof. Newton writes: — " I have known, or perhaps 

 I should say have heard of, plenty of nests since 1849 ; indeed I 

 believe this species breeds there every year." The Bev. Maurice 

 C. H. Bird, writing from Brunstead Bectory (Zool. 1890, p. 457), 

 considers that in the Broad district the Spotted Crake is more 

 common than the Lnnd Bail, and more frequently breeds there. 

 He mentions a brood of young hatched in his parish in 1889, 

 which were unable to fly on the 29th August, and states, " The 



