186 GRALLATORES. CREX. CRAKE. 



is accurately described : this bird, it appears, was shot near 

 Ashburton, in Devonshire, in the year 1809. Since that 

 time, few individuals have, I believe, been noted ; one, how- 

 ever (an adult), now in the possession of the Rev. T. Gis- 

 BORNE, of Yoxall Lodge, Staffordshire, and Prebendary of 

 Durham, was killed near Derby, and from which the figure 

 in this work is taken. The habits of the Little Crake are 

 similar to those of the other species, and it is found in simi- 

 lar localities, viz. marshes, moist meadows, the reedy banks 

 of rivulets, &c. In the eastern and warmer parts of Europe 

 it is very abundant, but becomes more thinly disseminated 

 towards the north, being of occasional occurrence only in 

 most of the provinces of France, and also in Holland. Ac- 

 Nest, &c. cording to TEMMINCK, it makes its nest in rushes and other 

 thick herbage, constructed chiefly of decayed and broken 

 reeds ; and lays seven or eight eggs, of a yellowish or green- 

 ish-white (jaunatres), with longitudinal spots of olive-brown. 

 Food. It feeds upon insects, worms, slugs, &c. 



PLATE 30. Fig. 4. Represents it of the natural size, from 

 the above mentioned specimen in the possession of the 

 Rev. Mr GISBORNE. 



General Bill five-eighths of an inch long, slender, and of a fine sap- 

 descrip- green colour. Irides crimson-red. Throat, sides of 



Male tne head, and neck, breast, and abdomen, deep bluish- 



bird, grey. Crown of the head, back part of the neck, and 



upper parts of the body, deep oil-green, tinged with 

 brown. Down the mesial line of the back is a broad 

 streak or patch, composed of feathers marbled with 

 black and white. The scapulars have a longitudinal 

 bar of white, encircled with black, near the margins of 

 the feathers. Smaller coverts plain oil-green, the greater 

 ones having white tips, surrounded by a line of black. 

 Vent and under tail-coverts blackish-grey, transversely 

 barred with white. Quills and tail hair-brown, tinged 

 with oil-green. Legs and toes sap-green. Tarsus one 



