128 BULLETIN 5 0, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



CREX CREX (Linnaeus) 



Corncrake 



Adult male, winter plmnage. — Feathers of forehead, crown, occi- 

 put, nape, hind neck, scapulars, interscapulars, innermost secondaries, 

 back, rump, upper tail coverts, and rectrices fuscous-black, edged with 

 from dusky cinnamon-buff to buffy-avellaneous ; upper and under 

 wing coverts dusky orange-cinnamon to tawny sayal brown, the 

 median and greater ones with varying amount of whitish small bars, 

 slightly darker on the upper greater primary coverts; remiges (except 

 the elongated innermost secondaries) snuff brown, darker on the inner 

 webs which are almost bister, the outer web of the outermost primary 

 cartridge buff except at tip which is pale snuff brown; superciliary 

 stripe from base of maxilla over eye to posterolateral corner of nape 

 ashy pale neutral gray ; lores, subocular area, lower cheeks and auricu- 

 lars tawny-olive; sides of neck similar but the feathers with dark 

 sepia to fuscous median stripes ; chin and upper throat whitish more 

 or less washed with pale tawny-olive ; lower throat and breast buffy 

 tawny-olive washed to a varying degree with ash grayish ; middle of 

 abdomen, thighs, and vent buffy whitish ; sides and flanks barred sayal 

 brown and buffy white, the brown bars wider than the whitish ones ; 

 under tail coverts buffj^ white somewhat mixed with sayal brown; 

 iris pale brown; bill pale brown darker at the tip, the maxilla more 

 flesh color than the mandible; tarsi and toes pale flesh color. 



Adult male, summer 'plutnage. — Similar to the winter plumage but 

 with the superciliary stripe broader, more blue-gray, the lower throat 

 and breast more extensively washed with ashy, and the edges of the 

 feathers of the upperparts averaging more grayish. 



Adult female, winter phmnage. — Similar to the male winter plum- 

 age but with less ashy blue-gray over the eye and none below it. 



Adult female, summer plumage. — Similar to the male summer 

 plumage but with less ashy gray on the sides of head and the throat 

 and breast. 



Juvenal (sexes alike). — "Like adult winter female but over eye 

 buff-brown without gray, all upper-parts with edges of feathers more 

 buff-brown without gray tinge; throat and breast more yellowish 

 buff-brown and without gray tinge; flanks more rufous and less 

 barred brown ; wing coverts sometimes without bars and usually less 

 barred than adult." ^® 



Natal down. — Sooty brownish black, the tips of the dorsal body 

 down buffy brown, the tips of the capital and the ventral body down 

 blacker.^^ 



** Ex Witherby et al., Practical Handbook British Birds, ii, 1924, p. 828. 



