WATER-RAIL 177 
white ; outer web of the first primary, white, a distinguish- 
able feature (cf. Little Crake). 
Adult female nuptial.—Breast and abdomen, light grey ; 
chin, nearly white; wings, more thickly spotted with white 
than in the male; ground-colour of the neck, light brown 
marked with darker streaks. The white on the web of the 
first primary is less distinct than in the male. 
Adult winter, male and female.—Resembles the respec- 
tive nuptial plumages, but the shade of the throat is much 
lighter, almost white. 
Immature, male and female.—Breast and abdomen, barred 
with different shades of brown; the remainder of the plu- 
mage resembling that of the female. 
Nestling.—Glossy-black. 
Beak. Green, except the base which 1s red. 
FEET. Dull olive. 
IrIDEs. Red. 
AVERAGE MEASUREMENTS. 
TOTAL LENGTH 
ie. ene 
WING ee ee fet Vora 4 
BEAK it Sr ats ener Oso 22 
'TARSO-METATARSUS Sohal | Aa 
i exe: 1 Sessa 
Note.—As indicated by Mr. Harting, the Little Crake 
resembles a miniature Corn-Crake, whereas Baillon’s Crake 
resembles a miniature Spotted Crake (cf. Little Stint with 
Dunilin, and Temminck’s Stint with Common Sandpiper). 
Allied Species and Representative Forms.—P. pusilla, 
with a distinguishable brown stripe through the eye and 
ear-coverts, 1s the HKastern representative (Saunders). 
WATER-RAIL. fallus aquaticus (Linneus). 
Coloured Fiqures.—Gould, ‘ Birds of Great Britain,’ vol. iv, pl. 
86; Dresser, ‘ Birds of Europe,’ vol. vii, pl. 495; Lilford, 
‘Coloured Figures,’ vol. iv, pl. 60. 
_The Water-Rail, tolerably common and widely dis- 
tributed over the marshy lands of the British Isles, may be 
12 
