RALLIDAE— CRAKES.
225
dent, for specimens are occasionally met with in winter. In 1826, Mr.
Parsons killed one (8) at Southchurch Wick as late as Nov, 7th.
Mr. C. H. Hills informs me that, about the middle of September, 1887, a par-
tridge-shooting party killed fifteen of these birds in one day in a field near Pod's
Wood, Messing. On June 29th, 1881, Mr. Travis took a nest with ten eggs close
to Walden, and in May, 1888, a pair nested at Feering. Mr. Clarke says (24) it
" occasionally breeds " there. In Epping Forest it is " a summer visitor, nesting
and remaining till the middle of September" (Buxton—47. 94). According to
King (20), in 1838, it was then " not a very common bird " in the neighbourhood
of Sudbury. The Rev. J. C. Atkinson says (36. 133) : " I do not remember ever
hearing its breeding note while I was a dweller in the district embracing what are
usually called the Eastern Counties." Round Orsett, Mr. Sackett says it is " not
common." A nest, taken at Mucking in July, 1887, is the only one he has met
with in that district. Round Harwich, it breeds not uncommonly (Kerry).
Mr. Clarke, in 1845, wrote (24) it "occasionally breeds" round Saffron Walden,
but in a recent letter he says :—
" I have not heard their 'crake ' for twenty years until this year. A pair have
just hatched their young close at hand. The young ones are very shy but our
foreman's children have caught several and let them go again. They are per-
fectly black."
Though by no means common during summer, I have occasionally heard its
breeding note ; as at Chignal St. James on June 16th, 1876, May 5th and June
11th, 1882, at Newport on June 9th, 1881, at Stanford Rivers on June 19th,
1883, &c. I have been assured that it was once common with us. Mr. Herbert
Marriage met with one near Chelmsford, on Dec. 9th, 1877.
Green-backed Gallinule : Porphyrio smaragdonotus.
An African bird which, though only a straggler north of the
Mediterranean, has several times occurred in Norfolk and once in
Essex. I quite agree with Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun. {Birds of Norfolk,
p. 34), that it has as good a claim to a place on the British List as
many other birds which have been admitted. A considerable cor-
respondence upon this point took place in the Field between Nov.
16th, 1878, and Jan. 4th, 1879.
An adult female, bearing no signs of having ever been in confinement, was shot
by Mr. H. N. Dunnet jun., of Jupes Hill (in whose possession it still is) at
Dedham, on Oct. 30th, 1878, and shown to Dr. Bree in the flesh. There had been
a fall of snow that morning. It was preserved by Ambrose (29. Nov. 16 and 30).
Moorhen : Gallinula chloropus.
An abundant resident on the banks of lakes, ponds and
rivers; especially common during winter, when its numbers are
greatly increased in Essex by arrivals from elsewhere.
At the time of the very severe frost of Dec. 7th, 1879, when the mercury fell
below zero, they were very common here and I saw them frequently perching on
trees. Lieut. Legge says (34. 604) it was very numerous in the marshes on the
coast in 1865, and the Rev. J. C. Atkinson has given (23. 497) an interesting
account of their habits, as observed on the Essex Marshes and elsewhere. In
May, 1880, I saw a nest eleven feet from the ground in the fork of an ash tree