MOORHEN— CRAKES 



3°9 



-> 



The large nest is difficult to discover, on account of its similarity to its sur- 

 roundings, and also because the birds utter only a soft, low, squeaking, long after 

 dusk. Generally surrounded by water, so that the birds can only reach it by 

 swimming, it is a loosely woven mass of reeds and flags lined with soft grass ; in 

 the beginning of June it contains from eight to twelve clay -coloured eggs with grey 

 and reddish brown 

 markings. The spotted 

 crake resembles the 

 water-rail in its habits, 

 and is distributed over 

 the warm and temperate 

 countries of Europe, in- 

 cluding England and 

 Asia as far east as 

 Yarkand and Gilgit. On 

 migration it passes into 

 Africa, where it goes as 

 far south as Zanzibar. 

 With a total length of 

 9 inches, it is olive- 

 brown above with dark 

 mottlings and white 

 specks and grey below, 

 shading into white ; the 

 under tail-coverts are 

 buff, while the axillaries 

 are barred with white. 

 The crown is brown, 

 spotted with black, like 

 the back, the forehead 

 grey ; the beak is yellow, 

 and the Ws are green. 

 The 



Little Crake. 



little crake 



(P. parva) is a dweller 



in swamps and marshy 



meadows, particularly 



where willow and alder 

 bushes abound : its nest 



being carefully hidden among reeds and flags, and always placed on wet and 

 marshy ground or over water. The structure is of an unusual shape, the bird 

 bending all the leaves and grasses towards the centre, and thereby forming a deep 

 basin lined with blades of reed. The eggs are hidden among the lining, and the 

 sitting bird is also hidden when in the nest, owing to her forming a kind of bower 

 above her head by drawing down the leaves of the surrounding plants. In June 

 the nest contains from eight to ten eggs of a dull brownish yellow flecked 



SPOTTED CRAKE AND CHICKS. 



