220 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



THE LAND-RAILS. GENUS GREX. 

 Crex, Bechstein, Orn. Taschenb. p. 336 (1802). 



Type, Crex crex (Linn.). 



All the Crakes have much shorter and stouter bills than the 

 true Rails, the culmen.in the genus Crex being less than the 

 length of the inner toe. The tarsus is about equal in length 

 to the middle toe and claw, and there is no frontal shield as in 

 the Water-Hens. 



Only one species of true Crake is known, viz., the Corn- 

 Crake or Land-Rail described below. 



I. THE LAND-RAIL. CREX CREX. 



Rallus crex, Linn. Syst Nat. i. p. 261 (1766). 



Crex pratensis, Bechst. ; Macgill. Brit. B. iv. p. 527 (1852); 



Dresser, B. Eur. vii. p. 291, pi. 499 (1878); B. O. U. 



List. Brit. B. p. 149 (1883); Saunders, ed. Yarrell's Brit. 



B. iii. p. 157 (1883); Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. ii. p. 535 



(1884); Saunders, Man. Brit. B. p. 493 (1889). 

 Crex crex, Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit, xxiii. p. 82 (1894). 



(Plate CXVII.) 



Adult Male in Summer Plumage. General colour above brown, 

 mottled with black centres to the feathers, which have more 

 or less of an ashy shade on their margins ; scapulars 

 like the back, with broad black centres ; wing-coverts uni- 

 form bright chestnut ; bastard-wing, primary-coverts and 

 quills chestnut brown, the first primary externally isabel- 

 line buff, the inner secondaries like the back, with black 

 centres, and indistinguishable from the scapulars ; tail- 

 feathers light reddish-brown, centred with black ; crown of head 

 fulvous brown, mottled with black centres to the feathers, the 

 two colours arranged in streaks ; hind-neck and sides of neck 

 fulvous brown, with smaller blackish-brown spots ; lores and 

 feathers below the eye, as well as a band along the upper ear- 

 coverts to the sides of the neck sandy-buff; above the eye a 

 band of ashy-grey, widening towards the sides of the nape; 

 ear-coverts, cheeks, lower throat, fore-neck, and chest ashy- 

 grey ; the chin and upper throat isabelline ; breast and 



