jio LAKES AND STREAMS 



with grey and brown. The young, which are very small, leave the nest with their 

 mother as soon as they are hatched. Sometimes this crake issues quite boldly from 

 concealment to utter a succession of loud screams ; but generally, unless of its own 

 will, is difficult to drive away from its hiding-place. It is an unsociable bird, 

 which, except during the breeding-season, lives alone, feeding mostly on insects and 

 spiders, and occasionally on seeds and vegetable-matter. Not only on the ground, 

 but also over floating leaves, it runs fast and lightly. It nods its head and jerks 

 its tail when swimming, and is an expert diver, hiding in the water with only its 

 beak above the surface. On the wing it is slow and ungraceful and keeps close to 

 the ground, but when migrating its flight is more powerful and steady, and the 

 distances it traverses are surprisingly great. This bird does not appear in central 

 Europe before May, and in September departs alone at night for equatorial Africa. 

 The breeding-area extends as far north as Jutland, but the bird is most abundant 

 in southern and south-western Europe, and is also common in southern Russia, as 

 well as on the salt-lakes of central Asia. In Germany it is less common than the 

 spotted crake, compared to which it is much smaller, being only 8 inches long. In 

 colour it is yellowish brown above, marked on the back and wings with oblong 

 black spots and a few white streaks, the under-parts being mostly grey. The tail- 

 feathers are black with brown edges, and the beak is green with a reddish base. 

 The female is buff below shading into brown on the flanks, the grey being confined 

 to the forehead and eye-stripe. 



Baillon's crake (P. bailloni), which resembles the last in habits 

 Baillon s Crake. . , . 



and distribution, has bred in the English fens but not farther north. 



and ranges through central Europe to the Persian Gulf : its place in northern and 



eastern Asia being taken by the pigmy crake (P. pusilla). On migration it is 



found as far south as Madagascar and Natal. Not much larger than a sparrow, it 



walks, runs, dives, and swims well, but flies laboriously with the legs dangling. It 



is probably more frequent than is supposed, owing to its being so difficult to 



distinguish among its surroundings. In colour it is brown above and grey beneath, 



the brown back being spotted with black and white, the outer edge of the first 



primary white, and the under tail-coverts black with white bars. The female is 



paler above and browner below. In both sexes the eyes are red and the beak is 



olive-green without any red. 



The two central European representatives of the storks difi'er 

 widely in their mode of life; the white stork (Ciconia alba) 

 frequenting river-banks, plains, lakes, and marshes, and often breeding among 

 human dwellings. The nest is built of sticks, twigs, lumps of earth, and 

 reeds, and is a shallow basin lined with grass, moss, old rags, paper, and other 

 sundries. It is a yard or more across, and is repaired and occupied by the same 

 bird year after year. By the successive annual repairs it becomes in time as tall 

 as it is broad, when its exterior is frequently taken possession of by sparrows, 

 swallows, and sometimes even starlings and black redstarts, as a nesting-site. 

 In favourable weather the male stork appears on the nest quite unexpectedly at 

 the end of February or in March; arriving during the night, as also does the 

 female, whom he precedes by some days. By the middle or end of April the 



