252 RALLID53 SAROTHRURA 



whitish ; throat, breast and abdomen dull white ; foreneck and 

 chest rufescent barred with dusky. Iris light ashy-brown. 



Distribution. Baillon's Crake is spread over the greater part of 

 Europe, from England, where, however, it is only a straggler, to 

 Lake Baikal in Central Asia, and southwards throughout East, 

 South and South-west Africa and Madagascar. It appears to be 

 a resident in Africa. 



Eeichenow considers the African bird distinct from the true 

 Baillon's Crake of Europe and Western Asia, and distinguishes it 

 as a subspecies, under the name of 0. pusilla obscura. However 

 this may be, our bird is widely spread over suitable localities in 

 South Africa, as the following list of recorded localities shows : 

 Cape Colony Cape division, November, near Vryburg, September 

 (S. A. Mus.), Swellendam (Layard), Port Elizabeth, not common 

 (Brown) ; Natal Maritzburg (Ayres), Newcastle, September, 

 October (Butler) ; Transvaal Potchefstroom, January, April, July 

 (Ayres), Pretoria (S. A. Mus.) ; Bechuanaland Lake Ngami dis- 

 trict (Andersson) ; German South-west Africa Omanbonde, On- 

 donga and Okavango (Andersson). 



Habits. Baillon's Crake is found about vleis and stagnant pools 

 or even along small streams where there is sufficient rank grass to 

 form a shelter ; like all rails it is somewhat difficult to flush ; when 

 on the wing it flies rather heavily and but a short distance, dropping 

 down again into the herbage and making off on foot. Minute 

 Crustacea, mollusca, worms and insects form its food. It is 

 excellent eating. 



Andersson found nests of this Crake at Omanbonde in northern 

 Damaraland ; they were composed of pieces of the stalks of reeds 

 and rushes and other vegetable substances ; the eggs, six or seven 

 in number, are brownish-buff or olive-brown, closely spotted with 

 obscure markings of darker. 



.Genus IV. SAROTHRURA. 



Type. 

 Alechthelia (nee Less.) Swains., Class B. ii, p. 358 



(1837) S. lineata. 



Corethrura (nee Gray), Eeichenb., Nat. Syst. Vog. pi. 



xxi, fig. 1-4 (1849) 



Sarothrura, Heine & Reichenow, Nomencl. Mus. Hein. 



p. 319 (1890) S. rufa. 



