250 EALLIDiE OETYGOMBTEA 



673. Ortygometra porzana. Spotted Crake. 



Ballus porzana, Linn. Syst. Nat. 12th ed. i, p. 262 (1766). 

 Ortygometra maruetta, Leach, Syst, Cat. Mamm. Bds. Bt. Mus. p. 34 



(1816). 

 Porzana maruetta, Dresser, B. Eur. vii, p. 267, pi. 496 (1878) ; Shelley, 



Ibis, 1882, p. 366 [Bechuanaland] . 

 Porzana porzana, Sharpe, ed. Layard's B. S. Afr. p. 613 (1884) ; id. 



Cat. B. M. xxiii, p. 93 (1894) ; Shelley, B. Afr. i, p. 176 (1896). 

 Ortygometra porzana, Fleck, Journ. Ornith. 1894, p. 383 ; Beichenow, 



Vog. Afr. i, p. 283 (1900). 



Description. Adult. — General colour above olive-brown, with 

 a few black centres to the feathers, especially in the middle of the 

 back ; the nape of the neck, wings and back, further ornamented 

 with little white spots and lines ; crown of the head unspotted and 

 rump almost black ; sides of the face, neck and breast olive, very 

 thickly spotted with white, chin almost pure white ; ear-coverts 

 unspotted olive-brown ; lower breast and abdomen white, becoming 

 straw-coloured on the under tail-coverts ; flanks broadly barred with 

 white and olive-brown ; axillaries and under wing-coverts brown, 

 barred with white. 



Iris brown ; bill yellow, orange-red at base, dusky on the 

 culmen, and at the tip ; legs and feet green. 



Length about 8'25 ; wing 5'0; tail 2-25; culmen -75; tar- 

 sus 1'2. 



The female has the sides of the face more mottled than the 

 male. 



Distribution. — The Spotted Crake is found throughout Europe 

 and Western Asia from the British Isles to Yarkand during the 

 summer months ; in the winter it migrates southwards to India 

 and Africa. 



It can hardly be called a South African bird as it has only been 

 recorded twice from within our limits. A female was obtained by 

 Ayres while travelling with Mr. Jamieson at Selenia Pan, in 

 Sechele's country in Bechuanaland, in December, and Fleck pro- 

 cured a second example at Namas in the Kalahari, in December. 

 The South African Museum has recently received several examples 

 from the Zambesi Valley, near Feira, presented by Dr. Stoehr. 



