248 



GRUIFORMES 



CHAP. 



during both day and night. Companies are described by Mr. 

 Hudson as meeting to dance about with expanded wings and open 

 beaks. 1 Somewhat similar in colour to certain members of the last 

 genus is Megacrex inepta of South New Guinea, one of the largest 

 Bails known, which is usually seen running swiftly along water- 

 courses ; while the black Habroptila wallacii of Halmahera loves 

 forests. The curious Himantornis Tiaematopus of West Africa is 

 brown, with black and rufous mottlings above, whitish throat, 

 stout green and black bill, and red feet. Dryolimnas cuvieri 

 of Madagascar, Mauritius, and Aldabra Island, and Canirallus 

 Jciolo'ides of the first-named and "West Africa must be briefly 

 mentioned, as must Rallina reaching from India to North-East 

 Australia, which has half a dozen small brown species, with 

 chestnut on the head and chest, and black and white barring below. 

 Crex pratensis, the widely-ranging Corn-Crake or Land-Bail, 

 extends from most of Europe to the north of Central Asia, winter- 

 ing in Africa, and occurring accidentally in North America, or 

 even Greenland and Australia. Zapornia parva, the Little Crake, 

 Porzana maruetta, the Spotted Crake, and P. lailloni, Baillon's 



Crake, are some- 

 what similar 

 British Birds, the 

 two latter of which 

 have bred in our 

 islands, P. maru- 

 etta still doing so 

 in some districts. 

 This species is 

 brownish-olive with 

 white flecks above 

 and below, grey 

 belly, and flanks 



FIG. 50. Land-Rail. Crex pratensis. 



showing black and white bars. Of its dozen congeners, covering 

 nearly the whole globe, P. Carolina, the Sora Eail of North America, 

 is particularly well-known. In the Ethiopian genus Corethrura, ex- 

 tending to Madagascar, the males are blackish, spotted or streaked 

 with white, and have fine chestnut heads, necks, or even breasts, the 

 female being dusky with rufous mottlings : in Eallicula of New 

 Guinea the chestnut extends over most of the body. Porzanula 



1 Argentine Ornithology, ii. London, 1889, p. 153. 



