248 KALLID^B CKEX 



Mr. Fitzsimmons has sent me an egg which he believes to be 

 that of this bird, and of which a good many specimens have been 

 brought to him, so there can be little doubt that the Corn Crake, 

 like some other European migrants, breeds in South Africa ; the 

 egg sent is white, slightly spotted, especially towards the blunter 

 end, with pale grey and rufous-brown. It measures 1-4 x 1'05. 





672. Crex egregia. African Crake. 



Crex egregia, Peters, Monatsb. Ahad. Berlin, 1854, p. 184 ; Sharpe, ed. 



Layard's B. 8. Afr. p. 612 (1884) ; Ayrea, Ibis, 1877, p. 352, 1885, 



p. 346, 1886, p. 293; Shelley, B. Afr. i, p. 176 (1896); Beichenow, 



Vog. Afr. i, p. 278 (1900). 

 Ortygometra egregia, Finsch 8? Hartlaul, Vog. Oat- Afr. p. 778 (1870) ; 



Oates, Matabeleland, p. 324 (1881). 

 Crecopsis egregia, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xxiii, p. 81 (1894) ; Marshall, 



His, 1900, p. 263. 



Description. Adult. General colour above olive-brown, most of 

 the feathers, especially on the wings, centre of the back and tail 

 with dark brown to black centres ; primary quills plain dark brown ; 

 ear-coverts and sides of the face silvery-slate ; chin and a streak 

 from the nostrils to above the eye white ; upper breast slaty washed 

 with olive ; rest of the under surface, including the axillaries and 

 under wing-coverts, transversely banded with black and white. 



Iris crimson-lake, orbital skin vermilion; bill slaty-green, red- 

 dish at the base of the lower mandible ; feet pale brown. 



Length 7'5 ; wing 4-7 ; tail 1-5 ; culmen TO ; tarsus 1-70. 



Young birds are browner and less olive than the adults ; the eye- 

 brow is brown ; the sides of the face washed with brown ; the breast 

 is brown, not slaty, and the bars on the under surface are broader 

 and not so distinct as in the adults. 



Distribution. This Crake was first obtained by Dr. Peters many 

 years ago at Tete, on the Zambesi ; though widely distributed over 

 the greater part of Africa from the Gambia and White Nile south- 

 wards, it is everywhere rare, and has not been met with, so far as I 

 am aware, in Cape Colony. 



The following are recorded localities : Natal near Durban, 

 frequent (Millar), Pinetown, March (Ayres) ; Transvaal Potchef- 

 stroom, February, May, July (Ayres) ; Rhodesia Bulawayo, 

 December (Oates), Makabusi River, near Salisbury (Marshall), Zam- 

 besi Valley, near Feira, February (Stoehr in S. A. Mus.) ; German 



