of Pallas and its Allies. 81 



racterized as very similar to the Western species both in size 

 and general appearance, but differing in the following parti- 

 culars : — 



The adult male has a brown stripe of the same colour as 

 the back, which traverses the slate-grey side of the face from 

 the base of the upper mandible to the neck, passing through 

 the eye and across the ear-coverts. (In P. Bailloni the side 

 of the face is uniform dark slate.) The upper surface is 

 lighter brown and not so heavily splashed with white, while 

 the under surface is greyish white instead of dark slate-grey. 

 It will be noted that Pallas particularly mentions the stripe 

 on the side of the face passing through the eye, which is the 

 most striking of the differences, which are in no way due to 

 season. 



The adult females of both the Eastern and the Western 

 species resemble their adult males, but are not quite so richly 

 coloured, and the breast is less pure and mixed with buff. 



The young of both species are very similar, but the young 

 of P. Bailloni appear to have the sides of the face nearly 

 white. In P. pusilla they are brownish buff. 



Mr. Seebohm, in his ' British Birds,'' ii. p. 546, in describing 

 P. Bailloni, has based his descriptions on both species, for the 

 male only is true P. Bailloni, while the female belongs to 

 P. pusilla. He has kindly allowed me to examine his collec- 

 tion of Porzana, and having also reexamined the material, is 

 quite of the same opinion as myself. He mentions on p. 543 

 that " the geographical distribution of Baillon's Crake is either 

 imperfectly known or is a very singular one ; " but owing to 

 his believing the sexes to be different, as already mentioned, 

 and having only a few sexed specimens in his collection, he 

 failed to recognize the distinctness of the Eastern and the 

 Western forms. 



Although the plate of Baillon's Crake given in Messrs. 

 Hume and Marshall's 'Game Birds of India, Burmah, and 

 Ceylon ' is the identical one used in Dresser's ' Birds of 

 Europe/ it is curious to observe that it has been altered in 

 the former work, and the cheek-stripe already mentioned in 

 my description of P. pusilla has been added, so that in that 

 respect the Indian bird is fairly represented, though in many 

 other points, as already observed by Mr. Hume, the plate is 

 not satisfactory. 



Both P. Bailloni and P. pusilla are easily distinguished 

 from the Little Crake, P. parva, with which they have been 

 and are so often confused, not only by their smaller size, but 



Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 6, Vol. v. b' 



