164 RALLIED. 



regard the Little Crake as generically distinct from its near ally, 

 Bullion's Crake, which has the same relation between the secondaries 

 and primaries as the Spotted Crake, the type of Porzana. 



The genus Porzana is almost cosmopolitan. Three species are 

 Indian, all of which are migratory, though one breeds in India. 



Key to the Species. 



a. Breast not spotted with white. 



a'. Outer edge of 1st primary brown ; winjr 4 . . P. parva, p. 164. 

 b'. Outer edge of 1st primary white ; .wing 3-5 . P. ptisillrt, p. 165. 



b. Breast spotted with white ; wing 475 P. maruetta, p. 166. 



1392. Porzana parva. The Little Crake. 



Rnllus parvus, Scop. Ann. i, p. 108 (1769). 



Gallinula minuta, Montagu, Orn. Diet. Suppl. cum fig. (1813) ; nee 

 , Hallus minutus, Pall. 

 Porzana minuta, Hvme, S. F. i, p. 251. 

 Porzana parva, Hume, Cat. no. 910 bis ; Hume fy Marsh. Game E. 



ii, p. 209, pi. ; Biddulph, Ibis, 1881, p. 98 : Scully, ibid. p. 500 ; 



Swinhoe, Ibis, 1882, p. 123 ; Barnes, Birds Bom. p. 371 ; St. John. 



lbi8,I88d, p. 178. 

 Zapornia parva, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xxiii, p. 89. 



Coloration. Male. Upper plumage light olive-brown, darker on 

 the crown, rump, and tail-coverts, pale on the scapulars, and 

 whitish on the inner borders of the tertiaries, back, rump, and tail- 

 leathers ; scapulars and tertiaries with broad black shaft-stripes, 

 interscapulary region speckled with white streaks ; quills and 

 primary-coverts dark brown ; forehead, supercilia, and sides of 

 head, with the whole low r er surface, light slaty grey, with white 

 edgings on the lower abdomen and flanks, and especially on the 

 lower tail-coverts. 



Female. Supercilia and part of the cheeks ashy, a light brown 

 band from the lores through the eye to the ear-coverts ; chin, 

 lower cheeks, and throat white ; rest of lower parts isabelline buff, 

 with brown and white edgings to lower abdomen, thigh-coverts, 

 and lower tail-coverts ; otherwise similar to the male. 



Young birds are whitish beneath, with brown tips and edges to 

 the feathers of the breast and flanks, forming bars on the latter; 

 they have fine w r hite bars on the scapulars, and white tips to the 

 tertiaries and greater coverts. 



Bill, legs, and feet green with a yellow tinge : irides red. In 

 summer the base of both mandibles is red, but Indian birds shot 

 in winter do not show this. 



Length of males 8; tail 2-25 ; wing 4; tarsus 1-2; bill from 

 gape '9. Females are rather less. 



Distribution. Throughout Europe, except in the north ; also in 

 South-western and Central Asia. A winter visitor to parts of 

 Africa and to Sind, where it is common on some of the dhands or 

 marshes. It has been observed passing through Quetta and 

 OHlgit when migrating. 



