32 BRITISH BIRDS. WITH THEIR NESTS AND LOGS. 



Family RALL1D/E. 



THE LITTLE CRAKE. 



Porzana parua, ScOP. 



* I S HIS species may be regarded as a rare visitor to the east coast of England. 

 X Stevenson, in the " Birds of Norfolk," records it as having been obtained 

 thirteen times in that county alone ; it has also been captured once in Scotland 

 and once in Ireland. No nest has ever been recorded, although it is very possible 

 that it may have bred in England. 



With respect to its mode of life, Stevenson justly remarks: "If the habits 

 also of the larger, and certainly more abundant species of Rail, are difficult of 

 observation, how much more so those of the Little and Baillon's Crake ! whose 

 small size and strictly aquatic nature afford every possible means of concealment, 

 render their capture at any time a mere matter of chance. Judging, therefore, 

 from the localities in which our Norfolk specimens have been found, and from the 

 fact that the dates, where known, correspond exactly with the spring and autumn 

 migrations of the Spotted Rails, we may, I think, fairly class the Little Crake, 

 (and the same reasoning applies equally to Baillon's), amongst those birds of 

 passage which, for a time at least, periodically frequent our marshes. It is true 

 the nest and eggs of the Little Crake have never been identified in Norfolk, nor, 

 until the summer of 1866, was there any record of those of Baillon's Crake having 

 been taken; yet in the very same locality, (Heigham Sounds), where eggs, presumed 

 to be of the latter, were discovered by the merest accident, both species have 

 been observed in spring, and both, in all probability, remain occasionally with us 

 to breed. It should, however, be remarked that, with one exception, (the locality 

 of which is unknown), the specimens here recorded, though produced within the 

 bounds of the ' Broad ' district, were all found in the vicinity of the smaller broads, 

 or on the ' ronds ' bordering upon the Bure and Yare, where it is obvious the 

 chances of flushing them would be infinitely greater than amidst the interminable 

 tracts of reeds which characterize our larger waters." 



On the Continent the Little Crake occurs sparingly in the north, but more 

 frequently in the southern districts, breeding plentifully in South Russia, and 

 extending eastward into Turkestan and Sinde. In its general habits it closely 



