autumn, although in the breeding-season it frequents 

 the reed-beds. 



The late Mr. John Hancock, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, 

 informed me that, in an egg-collecting expedition to 

 Whittlesea and Yaxley fens in 1843, he and his com- 

 panion met with the nests and eggs of this species on 

 the reed-grown shores of the mere, in numbers almost 

 equal to those of the Water-Rail, which was then a very 

 abundant resident in the locality. I need hardly tell 

 my ornithological readers that the celebrated Whittlesea 

 Mere has been drained for more than forty years, and 

 its site is now not more interesting, except for old 

 association's sake to the lover of birds, than any other 

 " reclaimed " district ; but it is a remarkable fact that 

 of late years the Spotted Crake has visited the valley of 

 the Nene in the neighbourhood of our home in North- 

 amptonshire very much more frequently than was the 

 case before the draining of our nearest fen-lands, in fact 

 we now look upon this bird as an almost regular annual 

 visitor in August, September, and October. I have not 

 hitherto been able, however, to discover that it has ever 

 bred in our district. From the nature of its autumnal 

 haunts this bird is more easily flushed than the Corn- 

 Crake, but it is, in common with that and all the other 

 species of the Crake family, very averse to taking wing 

 unless hard pressed, although that it certainly does 

 travel on wing without any absolute need for so doing is 

 proved by the fact that several Spotted Crakes have been 

 picked up under telegraph-wires and brought to me 

 more or less mutilated by contact with these obstruc- 

 tions. This bird is a good swimmer, and can dive well 



