BAILLOM S CRAKE. XQ 



joint to the end of tlie wing four inches ; the first and the 

 sixth quill-feathers equal in length, and shorter than the 

 fourth or the fifth ; the second and third feathers equal in 

 length, and the longest in the wing : the length of the tarsus 

 one inch and one eighth ; the length of the middle toe and 

 claw one inch and five-eighths. 



The young male belonging to Dr. Thackeray, the use of 

 which has been allowed me for this work, and which was 

 killed in the month of January, is to all appearance a bird of 

 the previous season, not having quite attained the mature 

 plumage, the chin being still greyish white, and the lead-grey 

 colour of the front of the neck, breast, and belly being va- 

 ried with patches of pale bufty brown and bars of greyish 

 white. In still younger birds, before their first autumn 

 moult, the neck, breast, and under parts are pale buffy 

 white mixed with light brown. 



There is reason to suspect that the Little Crake and Bail- 

 Ion's Crake have been sometimes confounded. As particular 

 marks of distinction, it may be mentioned, that the Little 

 Crake exhibits but a few white marks on the centre of the 

 back, and sometimes on the scapulars, but never on the wing- 

 coverts ; in Baillon's Crake, on the contrary, these white 

 marks are very numerous, occupying several distinct situa- 

 tions, namely, the central space on the back, the scapulars, 

 wing-coverts, and tertial feathers on both sides. These white 

 marks, placed on a black ground, forming the centre of each 

 feather, are so conspicuous and brilliant as to have led M. 

 Temminck originally to devote the term stellaris to this spe- 

 cies ; but he subsequently proposed to substitute Baillonii 

 for stellaris, as a compliment due to the celebrated naturalist 

 of Abbeville ; and this latter proposition has been received 

 and adopted. 



