232 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



and a man may walk where there are hundreds of them 

 without seeing a single one." 



Nest. Usually a mere collection of decayed moss and 

 coarse grass, loosely aggregated, and not admitting of removal 

 as a nest. {Brewer.) 



Eggs. From seven to twelve or even fourteen in number. 

 Clay- colour, with scattered reddish spots and grey underlying 

 ones. Axis, 1*2-1 '3 inches; diam., 0-95. 



in. BAILLON'S CRAKE. PORZANA INTERMEDIA. 

 Rallus intermedius, Hermann, Obs. Zool. i. p. 198 (1804). 

 Crex bailloni, Boie ; Macgill. Brit. B. iv. p. 539 (1852); 



Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. ii. p. 543 (1884) ; Lilford, Col. 



Fig. Brit. B. part xx. (1891). 

 Porzana bailloni, Dresser, B. Eur. vii. p. 275, pi. 497 (1878) ; 



B. O. U. List Brit. B. p. 143 (1883); Saunders, ed. 



Yarrell's Brit. B. iii. p. 154 (1883); id. Man. Brit. B. 



p. 499 (1889). 

 Porzana intermedia, Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxiii. p. 103 



(1894). 



Adult Male. General colour above dark ochreous-brown, 

 with black centres to nearly all the feathers, which are marked 

 with white spots and freckled with black ; lower back black, 

 freckled with white, but only slightly washed with ochreous- 

 brown ; upper tail-coverts ochreous-brown with black centres ; 

 lesser and median wing-coverts uniform ochreous-brown, like 

 the back, the greater series with blackish centres and white 

 frecklings ; the innermost secondaries like the back, with 

 broad black centres, the inner webs pale ochreous-brown, 

 thereby forming a broad longitudinal band on each side of 

 the back ; bastard-wing, primary-coverts, and quills sepia- 

 brown, the edges of the bastard-wing feathers and the first 

 primary white ; tail-feathers blackish, edged with dark 

 ochreous-brown ; centre of crown and hind-neck dark 

 ochreous or reddish-brown, only feebly streaked with black 

 centres to the feathers; forehead and a broad eyebrow, as 

 well as the entire sides of face, throat, and breast, clear slaty- 

 grey; abdomen, flanks, and thighs blackish, mottled with 

 white bars ; under tail-coverts deep black, barred with white ; 



