SPOTTED CRAKE. 229 



in Scandinavia. Eastwards it ranges as far as Yarkand and Gilgit 

 in summer, and in winter it is found throughout the southern 

 border of the Mediterranean, as far as Abyssinia, as well as in 

 the Persian Gulf, and Northern India, from Sind to Oudh and 

 Calcutta. It has twice occurred in Greenland. 



Habits. — Like all Rails, the Spotted Crake is a bird of the 

 most skulking habits, and on migration it will sometimes be 

 found in little reed-covered pools, from which it may sometimes 

 be flushed by a dog, when its presence is least suspected. In 

 such manner I have procured a few specimens in the Thames 

 valley, near Cookham. Seebohm obtained a large number of 

 eggs of this bird at Valkensvaard, in Holland. He writes as 

 follows : — " The habits of the Spotted Crake are precisely the 

 same as those of the Water-Rail, to which bird it otherwise 

 bears so close a resemblance that it is difticult to believe that 

 the two birds ought to be placed in different genera. They are 

 both equally shy and skulking ; they frequent the same fenny and 

 marshy districts; one is as unsociable as the other, and as un- 

 willing to take wing; their flight is the same — a heavy, laboured, 

 straight flight through the air, with rapid beats of the broad 

 rounded wings. The note during the breeding season is the 

 same liquid whit^ though that of the smaller bird is not so loud ; 

 and the position of the nest and the materials of which it is 

 composed are so similar that a description of one reads like a 

 copy of that of the other." 



Nest. — Large for the size of the bird, built in clumps of rushes 

 or amongst reeds. Those found by Seebohm in Holland 

 stood nearly a foot above the level of the water, and were com- 

 posed of flat leaves of the reed, sedge, and other water-plants, 

 and generally, when built in the reeds, had a foundation of flat 

 broken rushes. 



Eggs. — From eight to twelve in number. Ground-colour 

 olive or clay-brown to reddish clay-colour, or chocolate. The 

 spots are light or dark reddish-brown, and are distributed 

 over the egg; the underlying grey spots mixed up with the 

 darker ones, and sometimes quite as distinct as the latter. In 

 rare instances the reddish spots are confluent, and form 

 blotches. Axis, i'35-i*5 inch; diam., o*95-i'o5. 



