SHORTER-BILLED RUNNING BIRDS. 251 



most imminent danger. Though <a few birds may 

 occur together in the same field just after their arrival 

 in spring, the Corn-Crake is of a solitary habit. A 

 few birds are known to winter in Ireland, and fewer 

 still in England. 



PARTRIDGE— 12i inches. The only bird whicli, .as a fre- 

 qnenter of cultivated and pasture lands, and because 

 of its rounded form, short bill and tail, approximates 

 to the Corn-Crake ; but the latter, as a yellowish-ruddy 

 bird, is wholly unlike the grayish-brown Partridge, which, 

 moreover, freely frequents the open. 



SPOTTED CRAKE. — Form, like the Land -Rail 



(plate 107). Length, 9 inches. Face and throat 

 grayish ; crown dark brown ; upper parts olive- 

 brown, with dark streaks and small white spots, the 

 latter chiefly on the neck and towards the tail ; 

 breast brown, also spotted with white, and passing 

 into gray on the belly ; flanks barred with brown 

 and white ; bill yellowish, reddish at base ; legs and 

 feet yellowish-green. Resident and migrant. 



Eggs.— 8-10, olive-bufi; spotted with dark reddish- 

 brown ; 1-3 X -9 inch (plate 135). 



Nest. — Of flags, the central cup lined with fine 

 grasses. 



Distribution. — Found in some of the southern 

 counties of England, and locally on the east side from 

 Sussex to Northumberland ; rarer on the east of 

 Scotland, though less so at the autumn migration, at 

 which time it occurs also in Ireland, where it is at all 

 times very rare. In Wales it breeds in Breconshire. 



2g 



