SPOTTED CRAKE 107 



to be seen in the day-time unless driven out of its cover, when 

 it flies slowly and heavily. Like rails in general, it keeps near 

 water, or at least on moist ground. It feeds on insects, and can 

 be taken in snares baited with shrimps. The nest is on the 

 ground, and the eggs are spotted with purple and maroon 

 markings on a ground of white or stone-colour with a pinkish 

 tinge. 



Spotted Crake. 



Porzana maruetta. Gurguri khairi, Bengali. 



Known in Telugu as Venna inudikoli, the possession of even 

 two native names shows that this pretty bird is fairly well 

 known, though only a winter visitor. It is short-billed but long- 

 toed, and about the size of a snipe ; the speckling of white all 

 over the plumage is characteristic, the ground-colour of this 

 being of a common rail pattern, streaky-brown above and grey 

 below in adults, though young" birds have a brown breast. 

 The sides are vertically barred, but the dark interspaces between 

 the white bars are grey, not black ; the yellow bill is also a 

 noticeable point. 



The spotted crake arrives in India in September, and leaves 

 about April ; it mostly visits northern India, though in 

 Jerdon's time it seems to have been more generally distri- 

 buted ; to the coast it extends as far as Arrakan. It par- 

 ticularly frequents rice-fields, rushes and sedge, and has a 

 great objection to exposing itself in the open, while if it is 

 forced up, it drops after a flight of about a score of yards, 

 and declines to appear again. It is worth shooting if come 

 across, as it is good eating, according to Jerdon. It feeds 

 on water-insects, snails, as well as on seeds and herbage. 



Generally it is found singly, and in any case not more 

 than a pair seem to keep about the same spot. The call- 

 note, mostly heard at night, is a clear loud " kiveet," according 

 to Dresser. This is a widely distributed bird, breeding from our 

 own islands to Central Asia, and, in spite of its great reluctance 

 to fly in the ordinary way, appears to cross the high Karakorum 

 range in its southward migration to the Indian Empire. 



