CRAKE. GRALLATORES. CREX. 175 
Nostrils concave, lateral, linear-ovoid, pierced in a mem- 
brane occupying the mandibular furrow in the middle of the 
bill. 
Wings armed with a spine, and having the second and 
third quill feathers the longest. 
Plumage soft, thick, and open in texture. 
Legs strong, of mean length, with the lower part of the 
tibiz naked. Feet four-toed, three before and one behind. 
Toes long, slender, and cleft to their base, without any lateral 
membrane, hind toe resting almost wholly on the ground. 
Claws arcuate, compressed, and sharp-pointed. 
The Crakes hold an intermediate station between the 
Rails on the one hand, and the Gallinules on the other, from 
the first of which they are distinguished by a shorter, thicker, 
and more angular bill, and from the latter in wanting the 
extension of the lateral membrane that borders the soles of 
the toes, as well as the naked callous skin (or plate) that oc- 
cupies the forehead. By Linnzus, they were included in 
his genus Ral/us, but Latuam afterwards, under his system, 
transferred them to the genus Gallinula, in which he has 
been followed by TEmmincx, who places them in his first 
sectional division of that genus. Brcustern, however, and 
other ornithologists of the present day, have separated them 
from both genera, constituting a new one for their reception, 
and to which they are fairly entitled, from the distinctive 
characters they display. Their habits are similar, in many 
respects, to the above mentioned birds, being of a shy and 
solitary disposition, living concealed in the thick herbage of 
meadows or marshy districts. They have the same thin and 
compressed shape of body, and they run with a skulking gait, 
and with great quickness, seldom taking wing unless sud- 
denly surprised, or when forced to it by persevering pursuit, 
of course, with the exception of the times of their annual 
migrations.—They feed on worms and insects, as well as ve- 
getables and seeds.—Their flight is awkward and heavy, and 
3 
