THE SPOTTED CRAKE. 345 



in the course of many years, and this was near Kyeikpadein. In Tenas- 

 serim Mr. Davison obtained it at Tavoy. 



This Crake occurs over the whole of India, Ceylon and the Andamans, 

 extending on the east to China, Japan and Eastern Siberia. It has been 

 met with in Borneo, and will probably be found over the whole of South- 

 eastern Asia. To the west it ranges into Europe and Africa, where it is 

 found over the greater part of both continents. 



This species is a great skulker and very rarely noticed; consequently 

 very little is known in India regarding its movements ; but it appears to 

 be a partial migrant, visiting the plains chiefly in the cold weather. 



The specimen I shot flew out of a dense field of paddy. It affects 

 swamps and rice-fields, also pieces of water in which the vegetation is 

 thick, and it walks over the floating leaves very gracefully, swimming at 

 times. It breeds in India in the rains, making a nest of reeds in the 

 thick grass near the water's surface. The eggs are said to be as many as 

 eight, olive-brown, spotted with a darker shade of the same. 



697. PORZANA MARUETTA. 



THE SPOTTED CRAKE. 



Rallus porzana, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 262. Ortygometra maruetta, Leach, Syst. 

 Cat. Mamm. fy Birds Brit. Mus. p. 34. Porzana maruetta, Jerd. B. Ind. ii. 

 p. 722 ; Bl B. Burm. p. 161 ; Hume fy Senders. Lah. to York. p. 293 ; Dresser, 

 Birds Eur. vii. p. 267, pi. ; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 113 ; Hume 8f Marsh. Game 

 Birds, ii. p. 213, pi. 



Description. Male and female. The whole upper plumage and scapulars 

 rufescent olive-brown, all the feathers with a black streak down the 

 middle, and all, except those of the forehead, crown and nape, with white 

 streaks or spots, irregular and unevenly distributed ; the lesser and median 

 wing-coverts olive-brown sparingly spotted with white ; the greater coverts 

 barred with white, the interspaces more or less blackish ; tertiaries rufes- 

 cent on the inner webs, olive-brown barred with white on the outer, the 

 portion near the shaft more or less blackish ; primaries and secondaries 

 plain brown, the first primary broadly edged with white ; tail blackish, 

 broadly edged with rufescent olive-brown, and the central feathers irregu- 

 larly marked with white near the edges; a broad supercilium ashy grey, 

 the hinder part spotted with white; sides of the head ashy brown, the 

 portion under the eyes and ear-coverts spotted with white ; the whole 

 side of the head occasionally spotted with white; chin and throat plain 

 ashy grey ; breast and sides of the neck rufescent brown closely spotted 

 with white ; centre of the abdomen whitish ; sides of the body brown 



