RALLIDAE— CRAKES.
223
Order FULICARIAE.
Family RALLIDAE.
Water-Rail: Rallus aquaticus.
A resident, though local and by no means common. It evi-
dently used to breed in the county, and may still do so, though I
have no evidence of the fact. It is most often seen during hard
frosts ; its skulking habits making it at other times appear less com-
mon than it really is.
It evidently bred near Sudbury in 1838, for W. D. King says (20) :—
" Not uncommon ; I had a living specimen brought me last summer, caught
by hand in a cottage garden. I set it at liberty in my own garden, where it con-
tinued for some weeks, but at last made its escape. It moved about with aston-
ishing celerity, and when seeking its food, carried its tail erect like a Moorhen,
thus rendering its white under-tail-coverts very conspicuous."
In Epping Forest it is " not so rare as is sometimes supposed " (Buxton—47.
94). Round Southminster, Mr. Hill recorded it (12. viii. 573) as " very rare "
about 1834. During severe frosts there are often a few in a small ditch at the end
of our garden. For some days after the very severe frost of Dec. 7th, 1879, when
the mercury fell below zero, we had several here, and 1 shot the largest and bright-
est specimen I ever saw from among them. Another was shot in our garden by my
brother on Dec. 20th, 1878, during a spell of hard weather.
I have elsewhere commented upon the extraordinary difference observable in
the sizes of different individuals of this bird (40. x. 36S). The largest I ever
saw is mentioned above : the smallest belongs to Mr. Stacey of Dunmow.
Mr. Fitch informs me that he has seen eggs from Goldhanger, out of a nest
found in 1887 by Mr. E. Page, who had also found a second nest ; and the Rev.
J. C. Atkinson says (36. 135): "I had reason to know that it bred [sixty years
ago] at Tolleshunt D'Arcy, in Essex."
Spotted Crake : Porzana maruetta.
A rare and local summer or autumn visitant. It appears to be
by no means common in the county, though it seems possible, from
a fact mentioned below, that it may breed on our coast.
Mr. C. Walford records (19.47) one shot at Maldon about 1838. Mr. Clarke
says (24), " several have been picked up dead from flying against the electric
telegraph wires at Newport." It was " rare " round Sudbury in 1838 (King—20).
English describes it (43. i. 24) as an occasional visitor to Epping Forest, while
Mr. Buxton says (47. 97) it is "occasionally met with in the soft low-lying parts
of the Forest, such as would be attractive to Snipe. One may be seen preserved at
the house of the head-keeper, Broadstrood Lodge." A pair was shot in Hack-
ney Marshes, by Mr. R. M. Presland, on the 7th Oct., 1863. A third by Mr. J.