342 VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF LAKELAND 



may last longer than the skin, unless the Curator of your 

 recently-established Museum understands the business better 

 than these officials generally do.' In a letter of April 15 in the 

 same year, Hey sham repeats his request for a loan of the bird. 

 That his wishes were attended to is rendered certain by a letter 

 of April 27, in which he wrote: 'Your letter of the 24th 

 reached me on Sunday morning, and the specimen of Crex 

 pusilla was delivered to me at 9 last night ; for both of which 

 accept my best thanks. I will return the Crake with as little 

 delay as possible, and, to accomplish this, my Draughtsman's 

 pencil is already at work tracing its likeness.' What became 

 of the sketch we do not know. The bird remained in the 

 Cockermouth Museum until Mr. Harris received it back in 

 exchange for a duplicate specimen. He was therefore able to 

 show it to us in 1891, when it was in good preservation, despite 

 the lapse of forty years. This appears to have existed as our 

 only authenticated Little Crake until the spring of 1886, when 

 a specimen was obtained by Mr. Woodburn of Ulverston. Mr. 

 Woodburn then possessed a black retriever bitch, which had a 

 very soft mouth, and was an adept at capturing Moorhens and 

 other water birds. On the 19th of April 1886 Mr. Woodburn 

 visited the clay-pits at Brick Kiln Lane, near Ulverston. 

 These pits, long disused, cover some few acres, and are full of 

 water, sedges, and rushes, studded with a few hawthorn bushes. 

 The spot commands a pretty view of Conishead Priory, the 

 towers of which appear above the tops of the trees. It is quite 

 near the sea, and would be very likely to catch the eye of a 

 bird migrating at some considerable height. The retriever 

 which accompanied Woodburn ranged the marsh as on many 

 previous occasions, but, to her master's surprise, she caught a 

 Little Crake and brought it to him whole and uninjured. Not 

 knowing what it was, he killed it, and carried it for identification 

 to Kirkby, the birdstuffer, who identified it by reference to 

 books, and spoke of its excessive rarity. A notice of it 

 appeared in the Ulverston News of April 24, 1886 : 'On Monday 

 last [April 19] a good specimen of the Little Crake, Crex 

 pusilla, was caught by a dog in one of the clay-pits at Brick 

 Kiln Lane, near Ulverston.' My attention was drawn to this 



