Nest, &c. 
Food. 
General 
descrip- 
tion. 
Male 
bird. 
186 GRALLATORES. CREX. CRAKE. 
is accurately described: this bird, it appears, was shot near 
Ashburton, in Devonshire, in the year 1809. Since that 
time, few individuals have, I believe, been noted ; one, how- 
ever (an adult), now in the possession of the Rev. 'T. Gis- 
BORNE, of Yoxall Lodge, Staffordshire, and Prebendary of 
Durham, was killed near Derby, and from which the figure 
in this work is taken. The habits of the Little Crake are 
similar to those of the other species, and it is found in simi- 
lar localities, viz. marshes, moist meadows, the reedy banks 
of rivulets, &c. In the eastern and warmer parts of Europe 
it is very abundant, but becomes more thinly disseminated 
towards the north, being of occasional occurrence’ only in 
most of the provinces of France, and also in Holland. Ac- 
cording to TEMMINCK, it makes its nest in rushes and other 
thick herbage, constructed chiefly of decayed and broken 
reeds ; and lays seven or eight eggs, of a yellowish or green- 
ish-white (jaundtres), with longitudinal spots of olive-brown. 
It feeds upon insects, worms, slugs, &c. 
Prater 30. Fig. 4. Represents it of the natural size, from 
the above mentioned specimen in the possession of the 
Rev. Mr Gisporne. 
Bill five-eighths of an inch long, slender, and of a fine sap- 
green colour. Inrides crimson-red. Throat, sides of 
the head, and neck, breast, and abdomen, deep bluish- 
grey. Crown of the head, back part of the neck, and 
upper parts of the body, deep oil-green, tinged with 
brown. Down the mesial line of the back is a broad 
streak or patch, composed of feathers marbled with 
black and white. ‘The scapulars have a longitudinal 
bar of white, encircled with black, near the margins of 
the feathers. Smaller coverts plain oil-green, the greater 
ones having white tips, surrounded by a line of black. 
Vent and under tail-coverts blackish-grey, transversely 
barred with white. Quills and tail hair-brown, tinged 
with oil-green. Legs and toes sap-green. Tarsus one 
