RALLUS. PORZANA. 301 



Islands. In autumn many migrants visit our shores from 

 more northern localities, and in winter it is commoner and 

 more widely distributed from the Shetland Islands south- 

 wards. There is also evidence that many birds, possibly 

 those bred in our Islands, emigrate south in autumn. 



General Distribution. The Water-Rail breeds in small 

 numbers in Iceland ; also in Scandinavia to 66 N. lati- 

 tude, and in the Baltic Provinces of Russia to the Gulf of 

 Finland ; in Denmark, Holland, and north Germany it is 

 local, but from Belgium and France southwards to the 

 Mediterranean and eastwards over the rest of Europe to Ufa 

 and the Caucasus it is widely distributed. In Asia it ranges 

 eastwards to the Irtysh and through Turkestan to Yarkand 

 and Afghanistan. In north-west Africa it is resident in 

 Algeria and Tunisia, but to Egypt, Abyssinia, Arabia, 

 Palestine,, Asia Minor, Persia, and the north-west Himalaya 

 it is chiefly a winter visitor. It occurs occasionally in 

 Madeira and the Canary Islands. Birds from Persia have 

 been recognised as distinct. In eastern Siberia, China, and 

 Japan another form, R. a. indicus is found, which winters 

 in India and Ceylon. 



Genus PORZANA Vieillot, Anal. Orn. 1816, p. 61. 

 Type : P. porzana (Linn.). 



Porzdna, the Italian name ; also written Sforzana (Salvador!) and Forzane 

 (plur. ? Willughby). Of unknown derivation. 



Porzana porzana. SPOTTED CRAKE. 



Rallus porzana Linnceus, Syst. Nat. 12th ed. i. 1766, 

 p. 262 : France. 



Porzana maruetta (Leach); B. O. IT. List, 1st ed. 1883, p. 147; 



Saunders, Manual, 2nd ed. 1899, p. 509. 

 Porzana porzana (Linn.) ; Sharpe, Cat. Birds B. M. xxiii. 1894, 



p. 93. 



J)istribution in the British Islands. A Summer Visitor, 

 arriving from the middle of March onwards ; the majority 



