BAILLON'S CEAKE. 545 



they were; but as soon as their rarity was known, it was elicited from 

 the man who took them that he had seen the parent birds near the nest, 

 which was placed in a parcel o£ reeds growing in water about a foot in 

 depth. It was very small and loosely made, composed of dry rushes. A 

 few days later Smith paid a visit to the spot with the hope of securing the 

 nest, but found that the reeds had been cut and the nest spoiled ; and no 

 doubt the man who discovered it was employed in reed-cutting at the 

 time. The five eggs procured on the 7th of July were also taken in the 

 same locality; but of these, unfortunately, three were broken. What 

 became of the last nest I cannot say ; but the two were most likely con- 

 structed by the same pair of birds." 



In Europe the breeding-season of Baillon^s Crake commences late in 

 May or early in June. I have eggs taken in the former month at Val- 

 conswaard ; but in India it is much later. Writing of its breeding-habits 

 in that country Hume remarks (' Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds,' 

 p. 604): — "This species lays in July and August in the plains of Upper 

 India, and in June and July in Cashmere and the valleys in the lower 

 ranges of the Himalayas, containing suitable rice-swamps or marshy pools. 

 It is pretty common near Syree, below Simla. The full number of eggs 

 is, I believe, eight, as we found the fragments of this number of shells 

 round a nest that had hatched ofi'. Six is the greatest number of eggs 

 that I have yet obtained, but then I have only seen two nests with eggs. 

 The nest is made of rush and weed, completely concealed in water-grass, 

 wild rush, and the like, and is apparently usually placed very little above 

 the water-level.'^ Other nests that he describes were made of similar 

 materials, one being placed amongst grass and wild rice very little above 

 the surface of the water, and another amongst dense rushes and sedges on 

 the margin of a little pool encircled by rice-fields. In Europe the nest 

 is generally placed amongst the aquatic vegetation on the banks of a pool 

 or stream, and is made of sedge, dry leaves, and grasses ; it is rather 

 large, loosely put together, but not badly made. 



The eggs of Baillon's Crake are from five to eight in number, six being 

 an average clutch. They are oval in form, and rather glossy ; in ground- 

 colour they vary from pale olive to rich buff, profusely but indistinctly 

 spotted, blotched, freckled, and mottled with olive-brown and dull violet- 

 grey. On some eggs the markings are more confluent than on others, and 

 most are to be seen on the large end. They vary from 1-2 to I'l inch in 

 length, and from '9 to "8 inch in breadth. It is almost impossible to distin- 

 guish with certainty the eggs of this species from those of the Little Crake, 

 but as a rule they are slightly smaller. The female sits very closely, and 

 should she be disturbed slips quietly ofl' into the water and hides herself 

 amongst the vegetation at once. It is possible that two broods are 

 reared in the year, and if the first eggs are destroyed another clutch is laid. 



VOL. n. 2 N 



