THE SPOTTED CRAKE IN THE BRITISH ISLANDS. OL 



latest and earliest dates I have for the occurrence of the Spotted 

 Kail are as follows : Feb. 24th, Potter Heigham ; Nov. 5th, 9th, 

 and 19th, West Somerton and Brunstead." Mr. J. H. Gurney, 

 however, writes me word, " Joshua Nudd has not seen a nest on 

 Hickling Broad for many years, and never did find but one : this 

 was nineteen years ago, and on June 28th, 1889, Joshua and I 

 searched the place where he took it ; of course we did not find 

 one, but we found an abnormally small Moorhen's egg." 



Suffolk. — The Bev. Julian Tuck writes to me about this 

 county as follows : — " In the interesting article contributed by 

 you to this month's ' Zoologist,' on the Spotted Crake, you have 

 not given any particulars about Suffolk. But what holds good 

 for Norfolk is, I think, about the same for this adjoining county. 

 My old friend Dr. Hele, in his ' Notes about Aldeburgh,' writes, 



* These birds are met with only during the autumn I am 



not aware of the nest having been discovered in the locality, but 



have little doubt they do occasionally breed in the fen 



The fen is so large, and so well-covered a tract of boggy marsh, 

 that the finding of a Spotted Crake, without the assistance 

 of a good dog, must always be a matter of the merest acci- 

 dent.' Dr. Babington, in his ' Birds of Suffolk,' writes, ' The 

 bird is principally seen in autumn, and its nest is now rarely 

 found.' " 



Mr. G. T. Kope (Blaxhall, Suffolk) forwarded to the Editor 

 the following valuable note, which has been handed to me for 

 incorporation in this supplementary article : — " In Mr. Aplin's 

 interesting paper on the Spotted Crake, and its distribution in 

 Great Britain, although its occurrence both in Norfolk and Essex 

 is referred to, the intervening county of Suffolk is altogether left 

 out in the cold. A reference to Dr. Babington's ' Birds of Suffolk ' 

 will, however, show that this species frequents many parts of the 

 county, where the nature of the ground is suited to its habits. 

 It lingers here very late in the year, many examples having been 

 obtained during November ; while in one instance, quoted by 

 Dr. Babington, a Spotted Crake was shot as late as December. 

 As to its breeding in Suffolk, the same writer, quoting Sheppard 

 and Whitear's ' Catalogue of Norfolk and Suffolk Birds,' says, 

 ' Eggs and young found in considerable numbers in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Yarmouth ' (a statement which, in all prob «bility, is 

 intended to refer to both counties, Belton being afterwards given 



