CLASSIFIED NOTES 529 



the neck, light slaty grey, feathers of the lower abdomen fringed with white. The female differs 

 from the male in having the throat white, the chest, breast, and belly pinkish buff, and the 

 feathers of the lower abdomen barred with greyish black and white ; iris red ; bill green, red 

 at the base ; legs and feet green. [\v. r. i\ and T. w.] 



2. Distribution. This species breeds on the Continent from lat. 59 in the Russian Baltic 

 Provinces and the governments of Kief, Orel, Tula, Kazan, Simbirsk, Perm, and Orenburg south- 

 ward. The supposed breeding in South Sweden is doubtful, but it nests in many parts of Ger- 

 many, in Austro-Hungary, South France, North Italy, and South Russia. In Asia it apparently 

 breeds east to Persia and the Tian Shan range, but not in Siberia. Statements of breeding in 

 Sicily and Algeria require confirmation. As a vagrant it has occurred about forty-four times in 

 the British Isles, and also in the Canaries. It migrates to the Mediterranean region, wintering 

 in North and Tropical Africa, while Asiatic birds range south to Mesopotamia and Sind. 

 [F. c. R. J.] 



BAILLON'S CRAKE [PortAna /m.;n<t (Pallas); Porzdna bailloni (Vieillot). French, poule 

 d'eau de Bailloti; German, Zn-, rgeumpfhuhn', Italian, schiribiUu yriyiata]. 



1. Description. Distinguished i'rom the spotted-crake (see vol. iii. p. 557) by its uniform 

 dark grey chest, its dark green instead of orange bill, and barred under tail-coverts. It resembles 

 the little-crake, but is smaller, and has the outer marginal web of the first primary white. 

 Length 7 in. [178 mm.]. Upper parts dark brown, the feathers of the hind-neck, back, rump, 

 and secondary coverts with a broad mesial streak of black spotted and margined on the outer 

 web with white ; wings and tail brown, the first flight-feather margined on the outer web with 

 white ; eyebrows, cheeks, throat, chest, and belly uniform deep slate-blue ; abdomen and under 

 tail-coverts black barred with white. Female similarly coloured, but the under parts are much 

 lighter in colour ; iris crimson ; bill green, becoming darker towards the tip ; legs and feet greenish- 

 olive. Immature birds resemble the adult, but the under surface of the body is dull white 

 obscurely barred with dusky brown. Nestling covered with deep black down. [w. p. p. and T. w.] 



2. Distribution. Although there are no recent records of the breeding of this species in 

 England and it is now only a scarce vagrant, there seems to be little doubt that nests were found 

 in Cambridgeshire in 1858 and in Norfolk in 1866. On the Continent it breeds locally in France, 

 not uncommonly in Holland, and sparingly in Germany to East Prussia, while in Russia it nests 

 in the Crimea, Kharkov, Simbirsk (54J N.), Orenburg, and possibly in Ufa (Buturlin). South- 

 ward its breeding range extends to Andalucia in the Iberian Peninsula, the marshes of Switzer- 

 land and N. Italy (though Lilford's statement that it nests in Sicily has not been confirmed) 

 and Austro-Hungary. It is stated also to breed in Algeria, possibly in Cyprus and Egypt, and 

 in Asia apparently east to Persia, but in Eastern Asia and Japan, Africa south of the Sahara, 

 and Madagascar, and in Australia and New Zealand it is replaced by allied forms. In Central 

 Europe it is migratory, wintering south of the Mediterranean to beyond the Sahara, and has 

 occurred in the Canaries and Madeira. [F. c. R. J.] 



4. Nest and Eggs. The nest is a neat little cup of sedges, bits of reeds, etc., lined with 

 finer materials, and is generally placed in shallow water among growing rushes and water-plants, 

 which are often bent over so as to conceal the nest. At other times it may be found on floating 

 scum in deep water or in the sides of dense clumps of broad-leaved sedge. The share of the 

 sexes in building seems not to have been recorded. The eggs are generally 6 to 8 in number, 

 rather elongated in shape, and the ochreous ground is generally almost obscured by dense stip- 

 pling with rather dark olivaceous brown. They are distinguishable from those of the little-crake 

 by their higher gloss. Average size of 26 eggs, 1-13 x '79 in. [28-8 x 20-3 mm.]. The share of 

 the parents in incubation and the length of the period are not known. In England the first 

 layings were found early in June, and in Hungary from about the middle of May onward, but 



