248 BALLID^ OBEX 



Mr. Fitzsimmons has sent me an egg which he beUeves to be 

 that of this bird, and of which a good many specimens have been 

 brought to him, so there can be little doubt that the Corn Crake, 

 like some other European migrants, breeds in South Africa; the 

 egg sent is white, slightly spotted, especially towards the blunter 

 end, with pale grey and rufous-brown. It measures 14 x I'OS. 



672. Crex egregia. African Crake. 



Crex egregia, Peters, Monatsb. Ahad. Berlin, 1854, p. 134 ; Sharpe, ed. 



Layard's B. 8. Afr. p. 612 (1884) ; Ayres, Ibis, 1877, p. 852, 1885, 



p. 346, 1886, p. 293 ; Shelley, B. Afr. i, p. 176 (1896) ; Beichenotv, 



Vog. Afr. i, p. 278 (1900). 

 Ortygometra egregia, Finsch Sf- Hartlaub, Vog. Ost-Afr. p. 778 (1870) ; 



Oates, Matabeleland, p. 324 (1881). 

 Crecopsis egregia, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xxiii, p. 81 (1894) ; Marshall, 



Ibis, 1900, p. 263. 



Description. Adult. — General colour above olive-brown, most of 

 the feathers, especially on the wings, centre of the back and tail 

 with dark brown to black centres ; primary quills plain dark brown ; 

 ear-coverts and sides of the face silvery-slate ; chin and a streak 

 from the nostrils to above the eye white ; upper breast slaty washed 

 with olive ; rest of the under surface, including the axillaries and 

 under wing-coverts, transversely banded with black and white. 



Iris crimson-lake, orbital skin vermilion ; bill slaty-green, red- 

 dish at the base of the lower mandible ; feet pale brown. 



Length 7'5 ; wing 4-7 ; tail 1'6 ; culmen 1-0; tarsus 1-70. 



Young birds are browner and less olive than the adults ; the eye- 

 brow is brown ; the sides of the face washed with brown ; the breast 

 is brown, not slaty, and the bars on the under surface are broader 

 and not so distinct as in the adults. 



Distribution,. — This Crake was first obtained by Dr. Peters many 

 years ago at Tete, on the Zambesi ; though widely distributed over 

 the greater part of Africa from the Gambia and White Nile south- 

 wards, it is everywhere rare, and has not been met with, so far as I 

 am aware, in Cape Colony. 



The following are recorded localities : Natal — near Durban, 

 frequent (Millar), Pinetown, March (Ayres) ; Transvaal — Potchef- 

 stroom, February, May, July (Ayres) ; Ehodesia — Bulawayo, 

 December (Oates), Makabusi Eiver, near Salisbury (Marshall), Zam- 

 besi Valley, near Feira, February (Stoehr in S. A. Mus.) ; German 



