OP THE BEITISH ISLANDS. 77 



though fond of swimming, is often seen on land. It has the same reluctance to 

 take wing, and always tries to escape danger by running to the nearest cover or by 

 diving. When in Algeria I met with the Little Crake in the beautiful oasis of 

 Biskra, on the northern limits of the Great Desert. It had its haunts among 

 the short reeds that fringed the margin of a small pool. I first of all saw a 

 female floating amongst the reeds a few yards from shore, but as I approached 

 it swam gently towards the vegetation and hid itself in the cover. It floated 

 buoyantly, for such a tiny bird, and every now and then seemed to pick an insect 

 from the stems, and anon buried its head amongst the grass-like weed floating 

 on the surface. As I approached nearer, and walked round the wet mud at the 

 edge of the pool, a cock-bird rose from the reeds in a slow, fluttering manner, 

 with legs hanging down, and flew towards the other side of the pool. As he rose 

 he uttered the usual clicking note of this species, a shrill kik-ik-ik, and I shot 

 him as he went. When I dissected this specimen, which an Arab up to his 

 breast in mud and water had fetched from the pool, I found the remains of 

 beetles in its stomach, and a few bits of gravel. Hume states that he found this 

 Crake very common on the "dhunds" in Scinde. He never flushed them from 

 the sedge or reed, but found them everywhere, either running about the water- 

 lily or lotus-leaves, or swimming from leaf to leaf, jerking their tails and nodding 

 their heads like Water Hens. The same observant naturalist remarked that 

 this species is more insectivorous than Baillon's Crake. The food of the 

 Little Crake consists principally of insects and their larvse, especially beetles. 

 The bird also eats small seeds and scraps of vegetable substances. 



Nidification. — The Little Crake begins nest-building about the middle of 

 May, and its eggs are laid at the end of the month. The nest is artfully con- 

 cealed amongst the aquatic vegetation, and is sometimes placed a foot or more 

 above the surface of the water, occasionally under the shelter of a tuft of sedge. 

 Like that of all the Crakes, the nest is large for the size of the bird, and made of 

 reed and flag, dry grass, and other aquatic herbage. The eggs are seven or 

 eight in number, yellowish-brown in ground-colour, marbled and blotched with 

 olive-brown, and occasionally specked with very dark brown. They measure on 

 an average 1'2 inch in length by '85 inch in breadth. One brood only is reared 

 in the year, and incubation is said to last from twenty-one to twenty-four days. 

 At the nest the actions of this species are very similar to those of allied species. 

 The young chicks, clothed in glossy greenish-black down, are able to swim and 

 follow their parents shortly after they are hatched. 



Diagnostic characters — Crex, with the secondaries shorter than the 

 primaries by as much as the length of the inner toe and claw, the white 

 spots on the upper parts confined to the centre of the back, the flanks slate- 

 grey, the under tail coverts black tipped with white, and no white margin to the 

 outer web of the first primary. Lemgth, 7 inches. 



