BIRDS 209. Baillon's Crake. Porzana bailloni (Vieil- lot). The first example of Baillon's crake that lias occurred in Sussex is recorded in the Zoologist (p. 4159) by Captain Clark Kennedy as having been captured at Eastbourne on August 6, 1874. Another has since been obtained, September, 1894, near Brighton and is now in the Booth's Museum. 210. Water-Rail. Ra//us aguatici/s, hinn. Generally distributed and found frequenting the coarse herbage that grows along streams and ditches. The water-rail seems to neglect its safety somewhat during frosty weather, for it may be seen sitting in the open, huddled up with cold and almost fearless of man. 211. Moor-hen. Ga/linu/a ch/oropus (Linn.) Abundant and resident. 212. Coot. Fu/Ica atra, Linn. A common and resident bird in suitable ponds and lakes. I have noticed that the coots on Warnham Pond near my house will sit on the ice for three days when the lake is frozen over ; if the frost continues they then repair to a grass field contiguous to the pond for one day or more, and then should there be no chance of a thaw they leave for the estuaries or the sea and do not return till April. 213. Crane. Grus communis, Bechstein. Two are recorded, the first from Pevensey Level, May, i 849, and the second being killed at Pagham, October 18, 1854 (Borrer). 214. Great Bustard. Otis tarda, Linn. Formerly this magnificent bird was common in Sussex, and small parties of them were seen as late as 18 10. Gilbert White writing to his friend, Daines Barrington, in October, 1770, says, 'There are bustards on the wide downs near Brighthelmstone.' It was for- merly a favourite sport of the Sussex country gentlemen to course the young birds of this species with greyhounds. There is an ac- count of the capture of one of these birds mentioned in Yarrell's British Birds, when a female was shot on the downs near Eastbourne January 14, 1876. A very large bird ap- peared in a field near Horsham in April, 1899, and from the description given to me by the farmer and one of his labourers I have little doubt that it was a bird of this species. A female great bustard was shot by Charles Cooke, a watcher on Pett level, on January 5, 1891 [Zoologist, 1891, p. 104). 29 215. Little Bustard. Otis tetrax, Linn. There are four instances on record of the occurrence of the little bustard in Sussex. Specimens have been shot at Cuckmcre, October, 1846, and at Bosham near Chiches- ter (Borrer), whilst in the Zoologist two others are mentioned, the first having been killed at Eastbourne December 11, 1879, and the second at Clymping near Arundel in October, 1887. It seems that the little bustard only visits us as a rare straggler in winter. A little bustard was killed in December, 1900, by the Hon. John Ashburnham while partridge shooting at Ashburnham. Another has since been seen in the same neighbourhood. 216. Stone-Curlew. (Edicnemus scolopax (S. G. Gmelin). Arriving in April and departing as a rule in September the stone-curlew still visits the county in small numbers especially in the neighbourhood of the South Downs and on their southern slope. Many instances have occurred of specimens being seen and taken in the winter. 217. Dotterel. Eudromias tnorinellus {Linn.) The South Down about Brighton and Sea- ford is one of the first landing places touched by this beautiful plover on its northward migration in spring. The birds come in small flocks of from six to a dozen and do not stay for many days, and fewer trips visit us every year. So far as I have been able to ascertain, after leaving us the dotterel pursue a north-easterly course, resting in some num- bers on the Gog Magog Hills in Cambridge and again in Yorkshire, whence they move on directly to the Grampians and Aberdeenshire hills, where a few still breed. 218. Ringed Plover. /Egialitis hiaticula (Linn.) Common and resident along the coast. They are partially migratory in spring and autumn. 219. Little Ringed Plover. /Egialitis curonica (J. F. Gmelin). A very rare visitor. Two are recorded by Borrer. The first killed at West Wittering, May (no date given), is in the Borrer collec- tion. The second was shot by Mr. Dennis at Tide Mills Creek, Bishopstone, on August 28, 1865. In the Zoologist (p. 3279) Mr. Ellman states that he obtained a specimen of this bird in Sussex during the latter part of September, 1 85 1.
