246 GRUIFORMES CHAP. 
exceptionally—at the height of a few feet in a tree or bush. Rails 
and Crakes make a more or less substantial fabric in sedges, 
grass, clover, and so forth, Creciscus and Porzanula a spherical mass 
with an entrance at the side; but Pareudiastes, Cabalus, and Ocy- 
dromus are stated to breed in most cases in burrows. (allicrex 
occasionally fashions its nest on floating leaves, and the writer has 
seen a Moor-Hen’s nest in a similar situation. The eggs, from two 
to ten or more in number, are generally white or cream-coloured 
with red-brown, olive, or blackish markings, and often with faint 
lilac spots; those of the Coot are stone-drab with small black 
specks ; those of Cabalus modestus are white with a few indistinct 
rufous and grey flecks; those of Zapornia parva and Porzana 
baillont are instances of a thick olive-brown mottling. The adults 
are stated sometimes to carry their young in their claws. 
Exceptionally the plumage of the Rallidae is nearly black, as 
in Limnocorax, Fulica, and Habroptila ; slightly browner, as in 
Gallinula ; blue or greenish-blue as in Porphyrio: but the 
coloration is normally sober, with a tendency to olive, brown, 
or chestnut. This may be relieved by stripes of white, especially 
on the flanks; the under parts may be nearly red as in Creciscus 
levraudi ; and both surfaces may be spotted with white as in the 
male of Corethrura pulchra, or flecked and barred with it, as in 
Rallus maculatus. The sexes are usually alike, but Rallicula, 
Zapornia, Gallicrex, and Corethrura are instances of the contrary. 
Space, however, is wanting to give in detail a description of 
every form, which is the less necessary in view of their general 
similarity ; but the following examples will enable a fair idea 
to be gained of the group. 
Rallus aquaticus, the Water Rail of Europe and Central Asia, 
which winters in North-West India and North Africa, is olive- 
brown above with darker streaks, and lead-coloured below, the 
flanks being barred with black and white. The genus is found 
in most parts of the world, with the apparent exception of 
North-West Africa and the Australian Region. allus elegans, 
the King-Rail, A. longirostris (erepitans), the Clapper-Rail, and 
R. virginianus are well-known North American species, while 2. 
madagascariensis is confined to Madagascar. 
In Hypotaenidia, which ranges from India and South China 
to the Pacific Islands generally, the whole lower parts are barred 
with black and white, except in HZ. striata and H. miilleri, where 
