bury, Mentmore, Halton, Castlethorpe, Newport Pagnell, Buckingham, Bletchley, Fenny Stratford, or we have seen eggs taken near some of these places. In September we generally flush a few single birds out of the fields when shooting partridges.
155. Spotted Crake. Porzana maruetta (Leach).
(Porzana porzana would be the more correct name.)
The spotted crake is a not uncommon, though more or less unobserved, migrant, especially in autumn, and a number of captures are reported from the Thames and places where there is bog, swamp and reed, but no instance of its breeding in the county is known.
156. Water-Rail. Rallus aquaticus, Linn.
We ourselves have seen and shot waterrails in autumn and winter, and received some in spring as late as April 13, but probably it also breeds in various places. According to Clark Kennedy nests have been taken near Eton.
157. Moor-Hen. Gallinula chloropus (Linn.).
Very common, even on small ponds.
158. Coot. Fulica atra, Linn. Very common on all larger waters. On the Halton (Weston Turville) and Tring reservoirs they breed plentifully, and in winter huge numbers assemble, when they afford some sport for the gun. On the Thames they are comparatively rare, being never very fond of flowing rivers, but more of stagnant lakes and reservoirs or backwaters of rivers.
159. Thick-knee or Stone-Curlew. Œdicnemus scolopax (S. G. Gmelin).
(This bird should, in our opinion, be called Œdicnemus aedicnemus [Linn.].)
This bird is one of the past. Formerly it was by no means uncommon on the chalk hills near Ivinghoe and Drayton Beauchamp (see Kennedy, p. 97) and north of the Thames, near Aylesbury, Buckingham and Slapton, and in other places. In 1868, the Rev. H. Harpur Crewe told Clark Kennedy that ' it may still be often heard whistling overhead on a still summer's night,' but now we have not even trustworthy evidence that it has been heard for years past, and it is not now nesting anywhere in the county as far as we know.
160. Dotterel. Eudromias morinellus (Linn.).
Judging from all accounts the dotterel was once a bird of regular appearance in the spring and autumn migration time, but now it is doubtless very rare, and its visits are irregular and far between. As long ago as 1868 Clark Kennedy considered it evidently a regular visitor. He says that a few were shot in a field near Burnham in the spring of 1857, that it has been procured in the neighbourhood of Aylesbury and Drayton Beauchamp. The Rev. H. Harpur Crewe (Kennedy, p. 141) had an adult male of this species which was killed by a keeper of Earl Brownlow's on August 14, 1862, in a cornfield near Ivinghoe. In 1856 and 1858 several specimens were killed by Mr. Henry Taylor on the banks of the river near Windsor.
161. Ringed Plover. Ægialitis hiaticula (Linn.).
A regular visitor during the autumnal migration, very much rarer in spring, on all larger waters.
162. Golden Plover. Charadrius pluvialis, Linn.
A regular visitor in autumn, but flocks are often seen throughout the winter. Much rarer now than, judging from all accounts, it was in former times.
163. Grey Plover. Squatarola helvetica(Linn.).
On November 25, 1819, one was obtained near Dinton Hall. We have no further record of this bird in Buckinghamshire, but it is bound to occur occasionally, as E. Hartert shot one on December 12, 1897, on the Wilstone reservoir, not more than a few hundred yards from the Bucks borders.
164. Lapwing or Peewit. Vanellus vulgaris, Bechstein.
V. vanellus (Linn.).
Common throughout the year, breeding in many places, sometimes on quite dry ground. The Rev. H. D. Astley tells us that a few pairs used to breed on Coombe Hill above Wendover, but that they are there no longer. In winter they assemble sometimes in enormous flocks. Hard frost and deep snow are disastrous to the lapwing, many dying then of starvation.
165. Oyster-Catcher. Hæmatopm ostralegus, Linn.
According to Clark Kennedy (p. 184) individuals have occasionally been seen and shot on the Thames. As this is a coast bird we cannot look forward to many visits of it in Buckinghamshire.
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