SPOTTED CRAKE. 32 1 



unaware of her presence. Insects, worms, molluscs, berries, 

 seeds, and, occasionally, grain are eaten. 



The nest is composed of flags, reeds, sedges, or whatever 

 vegetation is handy, and is supported on a platform of bent and 

 broken stems, almost invariably in a very wet and treacherous 

 situation ; it is often raised six inches or more above the water. 

 The bird approaches by well-trodden but narrow tracks (Plate 

 139), and always with a suspicious carriage. Seven to twelve 

 light buff or brown, rather sparsely spotted eggs (Plate 153) are 

 laid in April, and both birds sit. The nestling is a downy, 

 blue-black ball with absurdly big feet and a short bill ; it has a 

 feeble cheeping cry. Miss Turner managed in the course of 

 ten minutes to obtain a series of pictures of the female removing 

 two chicks, and three eggs, after the bird had realised that 

 the nest had been discovered ; one unchipped egg gave her 

 trouble, but she managed to carry it in her wide-open bill. 



The upper parts of the Water-Rail are chestnut streaked 

 with black, but the crown is tinged with olive. The sides of 

 the face, neck, and breast are lavender, and the flanks strongly 

 barred with black and white, above the buff abdomen. The 

 bill is red, blackish on the culmen ; the legs are greenish 

 brown, and the irides claret-brown. In winter the bill is duller, 

 more madder in shade, and the general colour is browner. 

 Young are tinged with olive above and are buffer below, and 

 the throat is slightly mottled with brown. Length, 11-5 ins. 

 Wing, 475 ins. Tarsus, 17 ins. 



Spotted Crake. Forzaria porzana (Linn.). 



The Spotted Crake (Plate 138) breeds in most of Europe, 

 north Africa, and western Asia, and winters in Africa and 

 India. It is decidedly migratory, and though some nest, as 

 summer visitors, in England and Wales, and less frequently in 

 Scotland and Ireland, it is best known as a regular passage 

 migrant. A few remain all winter. 



Series II, Y 



