Spotted Crake.
Rallus Porzana, Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 262.
aqwticus minor sive maruetta, Briss. Orn., tom. y. p. 155, pi. 13 fig I.
Gattimla porzana, Lath. Ind. Orn., vol. ii. p. 772.
- , maculata, et punctata, Brehm, Handb. der Naturg. Vög. Deutschl., pp. 696, 098, 699.
Porzana maruetta, Vieill.
Zapomia porzana, Gould, Birds of Europe, vol. ix. pi. 343.
Crex porzana, Selby, 111. Brit. Orn., vol. ii. p. 179.
Ortygometra porzana-, Steph. Cont. of Shaw's Gen. Zool., vol. xii. p. 223.
T he Spotted Crake is the largest as well as the most prettily marked species o f the small but well-defined
genus of birds to which the generic name of Porzana has been assigned. In this country it is principally a
summer visitant, arriving in March and April, and departing again in September o r October. Its dispersion
over England, Ireland, and Scotland is very general; but it is much less numerous in the two latter countries
than in the former. In structure it is very similar to the Land-Rail, and it also assimilates very closely to
that species in its skulking habits and general mode o f life. I t affects sloppy marshy districts rather than
open grassy .fields, and is altogether more aquatic than its ally; hence the fenny districts of Lincolnshire,
Norfolk, Suffolk, and Huntingdonshire are the situations where it is most frequently found; but that it does
occasionally occur elsewhere is proved by the fact that examples have been killed in every county, from
Cornwall to the most northern parts o f England. In a word, it may be found wherever there are rivers and
large ponds with sedgy banks, and in all swampy depressions. In such situations it constructs its nest, and
nurtures its silken-black young in safety; for the nest, being always placed in the thickest parts of the reeds
and tangled herbage, is most difficult of detection. By far the best account o f this part of the bird’s
economy I have yet seen is contained in Mr. Hewitson’s work ‘ On the Eggs of British Birds,’ and this I shall
take the liberty of transcribing
“ M r. J . Hancock has a beautifnl series o f the eggs o f this species, obtained hy him during a bird-nesting
excursion through the fenny districts of the counties o f Cambridge and Huntingdon—some collected on the
borders o f Whittles«« Mere, but chiefly in Yaxley F e n ; to him I am indebted for the*following information:—
The eggs o f the Spotted Crake, as well as those o f the Water-Rail, which are met with in exactly similar
situations, are in ordinary seasons very difficult to obtain, the nest being placed in a thick bed of reeds, which
covers a large extent o f country, growing to a height o f six or seven feet, and therefore not easily penetrated.
It happened that the year had been unusually wet, and that the fen-country had-been covered with water, so
that both these species, which had had their nests swamped, and their eggs and^young ones destroyed during
the usual breeding-season in the beginning o f May, were a second time engaged in incubation a t the time
o f my visit in July, which was also the season during which the fenmen were mowing the reeds, and uncovering
the nests o f these two species, in the same way that those of the Corn-Crake are exposed by cutting
down the long grass. Several of the nests of the Spotted Crake, which were not so numerous as those of
the Water-Rail, were thus readily obtained. They were placed on the marshy ground, on a bed of broken
reeds, and were formed o f the long ribbon-like grass o f the reeds, and lined with a finer soft grass, which
distinguishes them from those of the allied species. They contained from seven to ten eggs each, varying
considerably, but always characteristic o f the species.” The eggs are represented in Mr. Hewitson’s plate
o f a buffy stone-colour, blotched all over with irregular patches o f reddish brown, some o f which are darker
and larger than others.
With respect to the distribution o f this bird in other counties besides those above mentioned, I find, in,
the ‘ Zoologist’ for March 1804, a notice from the pen of Mr. W. W. Boulton, to the effect that during
the year 1863 no less than sixteen individuals were killed o r captured alive on the river H a ll; and that
Mr. Hurd, o f Beverley, had certainly shot not less than ten others, and Mr. Holmes and Mr. Simpson, o f the
same neighbourhood, had killed six more, making a total of thirty-two specimens obtained, besides others
that were only se eh ; all that were procured were used for the table, and proved excellent eating.
The sexes o f the Spotted Rail present no very marked difference in their colouring; neither do the young
of the year vary materially from the adults after their feathers are sufficiently developed to enable them to
perform their autumnal journey across the seas to Spain, Portugal, and Africa—a journey which is
undertaken about the time, or perhaps a little later than the departure o f the young Land-Rails on a similar
errand, that is to say, when nipping frosts forewarn the bird o f the approach o f winter—a season not
congenial to its habits or mode o f life. I have always intended that my illustrations o f the downy state of