872 GRALLyE. RALLID^. 



MINUTE CRAKE.* 

 Ortygometra mirntta. 



Rallus minuttis, var. /3, LATH. 

 Ortygometra minuta, LEACH. 



IN travelling from Bluefields to Savannah le Mar, 

 we save about two miles by taking what is called 

 the Short Cut, a bridle-path through the deep 

 matted woods. The trees are largely sweet- wood, 

 tangled, near the edges of the broad morass, which 

 occupies so much of this plain, by spreading bushes 

 of black-withe and cockspur. Two streams are to 

 be forded, the one a sluggish water that crosses 

 the path immediately on our entering the woods, 

 the other is the deep and rapid Sweet River. After 



* Length 6 inches, expanse 8-^, flexure 2^, tail 1-&, rictus &, bare 

 portion of tibia -5^, tarsus 1, middle toe l^y. Irides brick-red ; beak 

 dark olive, edges at base paler green ; legs and feet clay-colour. Fore- 

 head, crown, and occiput black, softening at the sides and nape; a black 

 band from rictus passes through the eye, above which is a band of white, 

 interrupted by black immediately over the eye. Sides of head and 

 neck, yellowish-ash, blending with the black. Back, shoulders, sca- 

 pulars, and loins yellowish -umber, each feather deepening in the centre to 

 dark brown, with a conspicuous stripe of pure white running through the 

 middle of the terminal half. Wing-coverts yellowish-brown ; the greater 

 coverts and the tertiaries have dark centres, and terminal white spots. 

 Primaries and secondaries greyish black. Tail coverts black, with broad 

 spots and tips of white; tail as the tertiaries. Chin, throat, and whole 

 under parts white, slightly tinged on the breast with buff. Sides, flanks, 

 under-tail-coverts, and outer part of thighs, marked with transverse bands 

 of black and white. 



