306 THE ZOOLOGIST 



times, but with little success. The first attempt was made by 

 Augustus Smith in the fifties on St. Martin's, but most of the 

 birds flew out to sea. The few that remained bred, but the hordes 

 of cats on the island must have destroyed many of the young, 

 and, though never shot at, they died out in 1864. A more deter- 

 mined effort was made from 1866 onwards, but, though between 

 twenty and thirty Partridges appear for several years in the 

 Tresco game-book, there were only a few coveys left when the 

 present lord-proprietor succeeded his uncle, and these died about 

 1879. Since then various attempts have been made, and once 

 as many as a hundred and fifty birds were turned out. In the 

 month of February, however, when they broke the coveys and 

 paired, they set off on a genuine migration by way of St. Martin's, 

 where they are always last seen. A bevy of Quails had been seen 

 and one bird shot by Jenkinson previous to 1863. It has 

 been recorded over a dozen times altogether, usually in bevies in 

 the autumn. It has bred, however, at least twice on Tresco, 

 and once on St. Mary's. The Land-Bail apparently breeds on 

 the islands every year, but is most in evidence as a spring and 

 autumn bird of passage. On Sept. 19th, 1857, Pechell shot 

 eight couples on the Lower Moors, St. Mary's, but this was most 

 exceptional, as it is seldom one sees more than a pair or so in 

 the course of a day's shooting. It is generally common during 

 spring migration than at any other time. In 1903 it bred on 

 St. Mary's, and on Bryher. The Spotted Crake was first recorded 

 in the autumn of 1849. One was seen by F. R. Rodd in the 

 Abbey garden in 1860, and in his notes of 1863 he speaks of its 

 having been "met with in a few instances." He himself shot 

 one on Oct. 8th, 1870. About the end of May, 1903, this bird was 

 flushed on two successive days from a likely nesting spot on the 

 Higher Moors, St. Mary's. The only record of the occurrence of 

 the Lesser Crake is in Rodd's 1863 notes, where he mentions 

 that Pechell had killed one on the islands which had been seen 

 by him. As this bird is not referred to in the Abbey game-book, 

 which goes back to 1856, and is not mentioned in the list for the 

 year 1849, when Pechell first visited the islands, it was in all 

 probability killed in the early fifties. 



(To be continued.) 



