344 BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 



Genus POKZANA, Vieill. 



696. PORZANA BAILLONL 



BAILLON'S CRAKE. 



Rallus bailloni, Vieill. Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. xxviii. p. 548. Crex pygmaea, 

 Naum. Naturg. Vog. Deutschl. ix. p. 567. Porzana pygmaea, Jerd. B. Ind. ii. 

 p. 723 ; Hume fy Senders. Lah. to Yark. p. 293 ; Hume, S. F. i. p. 251 ; SI. B. 

 Burm. p. 161 ; Wald. Trans. Zool Soc. ix. p. 230 ; David et Oust. Ois. Chine, 

 p. 487. Zapornia pygmaea, Hume, Nests and Eggs, p. 603. Ortygometra 

 pygmaea, Hume, S. F. ii. p. 301. Porzana bailloni, Dresser, Birds Eiir. vii. 

 p. 275, pi. ; Legge, Birds Ceylon, p. 766 ; Hume 8f Dai). S. F. vi. p. 467 j Hume, 

 S. F. viii. p. 113 ; Scully, S. F. viii. p. 358 j Hume fy Marsh. Game Birds, ii. 

 p. 203, pi. ; Oates, S. F. x. p. 242. 



Description. Male and female. Forehead, crown, nape, back, rump, 

 scapulars and upper tail-coverts rufous-brown, each feather broadly 

 streaked with black down the centre, and those of the back, scapulars and 

 rump with irregular narrow interrupted white streaks ; tertiaries rufous - 

 brown, the portion next the shaft black, the outer webs with bar-like white 

 spots ; primaries and secondaries brown, the first primary edged with 

 white on the outer web ; upper wing-coverts rufous-brown, some of the 

 longer ones mottled with white at the tips ; ear-coverts and feathers under 

 the eye and sides of the neck rufous ; lores, a broad supercilium, cheeks, 

 fore neck and breast ashy grey ; chin and throat albescent ; centre of the 

 abdomen greyish white ; sides of the body rufous-grey ; flanks, vent and 

 under tail-coverts brown barred v,ith white; under wing-coverts brown, 

 sparingly marked with white. 



Bill dark green; iris reddish; legs light green; claws greenish. (A. 

 Anderson, MS.) 



Length 7'5 inches, tail 2, wing 3 '3, tarsus 1, bill from gape '7. The 

 female appears to be of the same size. 



P. parva, the Little Crake of Europe, is of about the same size, but 

 every portion of the lower plumage and sides of the head are a uniform 

 deep plumbeous ashy in the male, dull pinkish in the female. P. exqui- 

 sita, from China, has the upper plumage brown irregularly barred with 

 white, and the under wing-coverts, axillaries and secondaries are pure 

 white; it is figured in ' The Ibis/ 1875, pi. iii. No reference to this very 

 distinct and beautiful species appears to be made by Messrs. David et 

 Oustalet in their ' Oiseaux de la Chine/ P. cinerea is a species which 

 occurs in the southern portion of the Malay peninsula. 



Baillon's Crake is said by Mr. Blyth to be common in Burmah, and no 

 doubt it is so. I have, however, been able to procure only one specimen 



