THE SPOTTED CRAKE IN THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 93 



county seem on the whole to confirm Mr. Aplin's apparent con- 

 clusion, viz., that the Spotted Crake arrives very early in the 

 spring, and departs as late in the autumn." The nest found by 

 Mr. Eope near Leiston was recorded by him in ' The Zoologist ' 

 for 1878, p. 451. 



Kent. — In reply to my request for information (Zool. 

 1890, p. 457), Mr. W. Oxenden Hammond, of St. Alban's 

 Court, near \Yingham, has been good enough to send me the 

 following note: — "I can give none with reference to its 

 breeding in this neighbourhood, although in the wet summer 

 of 1860 (I think that was the year), I remember killing one 

 in the flooded marshes at Stodmarsh, near Canterbury, in 

 July, the marshes being full of Snipes. From the season, 

 this bird had probably bred. I have killed several at different 

 times in the marshes near YWngharu. It is rather a curious 

 coincidence that, having read your article on this bird in 

 1 The Zoologist ' in the evening, I went to shoot Snipes the 

 next morning (Nov. 1st), and in the course of the day killed a 

 Spotted Crake." 



Somerset.— The Rev. Murray A. Mathew, in a long and very 

 interesting letter, says of this county:-—" I have long since come 

 to regard it as one of our resident birds. At one time I used to 

 shoot Snipe throughout the winter on the peat moors between 

 Highbridge and Glastonbury. The Spotted Crake was one of the 

 characteristic birds of that strange district, well-known to the 

 gunners, who shot Snipe to sell them, by the name of " Jacky-mo." 

 I never was on the ground without coming across several, and 

 did not molest them, as I had discovered from experience that 

 they were not worth anything for the spit. An old setter I had 

 used to drop to his points, and once or twice I have seen the 

 unconscious "Jacky-mo" pecking on the ground between his fore 

 legs. In any of the winter months you would be sure to come 

 across Spotted Crakes on this snipe-ground. I have often 

 regretted that I have never done any bird-nesting in the peat- 

 moor district, as not only nests of Porzana maruetta might be 

 found, but those of rare aquatic warblers. The Shoveller, and 

 perhaps the Garganey, would nest regularly if the gunners would 

 only leave them alone. I possess an egg of the Shoveller taken 

 on North Curry Moor some years ago. Broods of Spotted Crakes 

 used to be common in the neighbourhood of Weston-super-Mare 



