o 



68 ALECTORIDES. 



Porzana maiuetta. 



THE EUROPEAN SPOTTED CRAKE. 



Rallus porzaim, Linn. S. N. cd. 12, I. 17G6, 262. 



Crex porzana, Jenyns, Man. Brit. Vert. An. 1835, 218. — Naum. Vog. DeutscLl. IX. 1838, 523, pi. 



237. — Macgill. Man. II. 114 ; Hist. Brit. B. IV. 1852, 535. 

 Oriyrjometra 2)0J-zana, Stei'U. Gen. Zool. XII. 223. — Bonap. Comp. List, 1838, 53. — Keys. & 



Blas. Wirb. Eur. 67. — Ghay, Gen. B. 111. 593; Cat. Brit. B. 1863, 179. — Reinh. Ibis, 



1861, 12 (Greenland). 

 Gallinula maculata, Buehm, Vbg. Deutschl. 1831, 698. 

 Gall hmla punctata, Buehm, t. c. 699, pi. 36, fig. 3. 

 Ortygometra maruetta. Leach, Syst. Cat. 1816, 2>i. 

 Porzana maruetta, Gray, List Gen. B. 1841, 91. — Ridgw. Proc. IT. S. Nat. Mus. Vol. 3, 1880, 



201, 222 ; Norn. N. Am. B. 1881, no. 573. — CouES, Check List, 2d ed. 1882, no. 678. 

 Spotted Crake, Yauk. Brit. B. ed. 2, 111. 97, fig. ; ed. 3, III. 114, fig. 



Hab. Palcearctic Eegion ; occasional in Greenland (el. Reinhardt, "Ibis," 1861, p. 122). 



Sp. Char. Achdt : Above, russet-brown, relieved by oblong spots of black and irregular, mostly 

 longitudinal, streaks of white ; crown streaked with black, but without a median longitudinal stripe 

 of this color, as in P. Carolina ; a wide suj^erciliary stripe, malar region, chin, and throat, soft mouse- 

 gray ; lower half of lores dusky, upjier half dull whitish ; auriculars, neck, and jugulum light 



hair-brown, irregularly speckled with white ; abdomen whitish ; sides and flanks brown, barred 

 with wliite : crissum, ])lain creamy buff. Young: Similar to the above, but superciliary stripe 

 finely speckled with white, the malar region, chin, and throat whitish, speckled with brown, the 

 breast and belly washed witli pali> l)uir. 



Wing, about 4.25-4.50 ; culmen, .68-.72 ; tarsu.s, 1.20-1.30; middle toe, 1.2.5-1.35. Bill " red- 

 dish yellow, brighter at the base," iris reddish brown, feet yellowish green (Macgillivray). 



This species is about the size of the Common" Sora"of North America (Porzana Carolina), and 

 resembles it very closely in coloration, the upper parts being almost precisely sinnlar. It may be 

 immediately distinguished, however, by Ihe white speckling of the neck and breast, and the streaked 

 crown, characteristic of all stages, and in the adult plumage having no black on tlie lores or 

 throat. 



The "Spotted Crake" of Enp^land, or "Porzane Marouette" of the French, is, 

 according to M. Gerbe, a hii-d common in the greater part of Europe, Asia, and 

 Africa, and more especially in the warmer portions of that region. It is a bird of 

 the old continent, and has no other claim to a place in onr fauna than its occasional 

 presence in Greenland. Gerbe says that it is not rare in any part of France, not even 

 the more northerly, Avhere it usually arrives in March, and from which it departs in 



