LITTLE CRAKE. 225 



white ; the greater coverts, primary-coverts, and quills with 

 more or less distinct white spots at the tips. 



Nestling. " Covered with black down with a greenish gloss ; 

 legs bluish-grey " ( W. Eagle Clarke]. 



Range in Great Britain. A spring and autumn visitor to our 

 islands. No authentic instance of its having bred in England 

 has been noted. Though it has been recorded from many 

 counties, and especially from Norfolk, in Scotland and in 

 Ireland the species has occurred but once. 



Kange outside the British Islands. The Little Crake breeds 

 throughout Central Europe and Russia, and is believed to 

 have nested in Southern Sweden. In Italy it also breeds, but 

 in other parts of the Mediterranean it is only known as a 

 migrant, though resident again in Algeria. Its eastern range 

 extends to Central Asia and Afghanistan, and it winters in 

 N or th-We stern India and in Equatorial Africa. 



Habits. Mr. A. O. Hume thus describes the habits of the 

 Little Crake in Sind : " I never flushed these birds out of 

 sedge or reed, but found them everywhere running about over 

 the lotus and water-lily leaves, or swimming about from leaf to 

 leaf, and exhibiting far less timidity than Baillon's Crake. 

 Like the latter, they look when in the water exactly like tiny 

 Water-hens, jerking their tails and nodding their heads exactly 

 like the latter. One thing I noticed in this species which I 

 never observed in either of the others I saw one bird volun- 

 tarily diving several times, apparently in search of food. The 

 others will dive when a shot is suddenly fired near them, or 

 when they are wounded, but this bird was deliberately diving 

 for its own amusement. When pressed, they rise more 

 steadily and fly more strongly than Baillon's Crake, taking 

 refuge in the thickets of tamarisk that fringe the broads, and 

 are studded about most of them as islands. The food of 

 this species seems to consist far more exclusively of insects 

 than that of Baillon's Crake. In more than a dozen specimens 

 which I examined, the stomachs contained water-bugs and 

 beetles, small insects of all kinds, and larvae of various, and to 

 me quite unknown, species, with here and there a few small 

 black seeds and a trace of vegetable matter. Of course, as is 

 '5 Q 



