112 love's meinie. 



Porzana Minuta, Olivaceous Crake ; Porzana 

 P3^gm3ea, Baillon's Crake ; and Porzana Maru- 

 etta, Spotted Crake. 



Now, in the first place, I find ' Porzana ' to 

 be indeed Italian for 'water-hen,' but I can't 

 find its derivation ; and in the second place, 

 these little birds are neither water-hens nor 

 moor-hens, nor water-cocks nor moor-cocks ; 

 neither can I find, either in Gould, Yarrell, or 

 Bewick, the slightest notice of their voices ! — 

 though it is only in implied depreciation of 

 their quality, that we have any business to 

 call them ' Crakes,' * Croaks,' or * Creaks.' In 

 the third place, ' Olivaceous ' is not a transla- 

 tion of * Minuta,' nor ' Baillon's ' of ' Pygmaea,' 

 nor 'spotted' of 'Maruetta'; which last is 

 another of the words that mean nothing in 

 any language that I know of, though the 

 French have adopted it as * Marouette.' And 

 in the fourth place, I can't make out any 

 difference, either in text or picture, between 

 Mr. Baillon's Crake, and the * minute ' one, 

 except that the minute one is the bigger, and 

 has fewer white marks in the centre of the 

 back, 



95. For our purposes, therefore, I mean to 



