254 RALLID^ SAROTHRURA 



Description. Adult male. General colour above black, all the 

 feathers longitudinally streaked with whitish, which becomes some- 

 what more yellow on the middle of the back ; crown, nape and sides 

 of the face rich rufous ; tail, which consists of very decomposed 

 feathers, also rufous, black at the extreme base ; wing-quills brown, 

 the outer edge of the outer one white ; chin and throat white ; rest 

 of the lower surface black, streaked with white, like the upper 

 surface, but rather more broadly. 



Length 5'50 ; wing 2-8 ; tail 1-75 ;. oulmen -45 ; tarsus -75. 



The female differs considerably from the male ; general colour 

 above black streaked on the crown and nape, barred on the rest of 

 the upper surface with fulvous ; wings as in the male ; tail-feathers 

 chestnut barred with black ; sides of the face and under parts 

 whitish, spotted finely on the cheeks, more coarsely on the breast, 

 with black ; under tail-coverts banded black and rufous ; wing 2 75. 



Distribution. Jardine's Crake is a rare bird, seldom obtained. 

 It is known from Cape Colony, Natal and Rhodesia only, within 

 our limits, but has recently been procured by Mr. Whyte at Mlosa 

 in Nyasaland. 



The following are recorded occurrences within our area : Cape 

 Colony Frensch Hoek in Paarl div., June, Swellendam and 

 Knysna (Layard), Port Elizabeth and East London (Rickard), 

 King William's Town (Trevelyan) ; Natal Victoria County (S. A. 

 Mus.), Pinetown (Ayres) and Ifafa (Woodward) ; Rhodesia nr. 

 Salisbury (Marshall). 



Habits. Like most of the birds of this family, Jardiue's Crake 

 is rare in collections, probably more on account of its retiring habits 

 than of its real scarcity. It is generally found in long grass or low 

 brushwood and has a slow and awkward flight seldom prolonged for 

 any length of time. A nest was found by Mr. Leopold Layard at 

 Grootvadersbosch, in the Swellendam division ; it contained four 

 eggs ; one of these, still preserved in the South African Museum, is 

 oval, somewhat pointed at one end, smooth and somewhat shiny 

 and pure white. It measures 1-03 x '71. 



676. Sarothrura elegans. White-spotted Crake. 



Gallinula elegans, Smith, III Zool S. Afr. Aves, pi. 22 (1839). 

 Corethrura pulchra (nee Gray], Layard, B. 8. Afr. p. 339 (1867) ; 



Sharpe, ed. Layard's B. S. Afr. p. 615 (1884). 

 Corethrura elegans, Finsch, Journ. Ornith., 1867, p. 249 [Durban ] ; 



