268 



albo fasciatis et notatis : subcaudalibus ochraceo-cervinis : rostro aurantiaco-flavo, ad basin rubro : 

 iride fusca : pedibus luteo-viridibus. 



$ ad. mari similis sed minor et sordidior, minus albo notata, abdomine magis albo, et hypochondriis fusco 

 lavatis. 



Adult Male (Rotterdam) . Forehead, crown, sides of the face, chin, and upper throat deep blackish slate- 

 grey, the throat and head in front of the eye unspotted; crown closely marked with black and dark 

 reddish brown ; lores and feathers at the base of the bill nearly black ; nape, hind neck, and upper 

 parts generally dark reddish brown with an olivaceous tinge, on the neck closely dotted with white, and 

 on the rest of the upper parts marked with short stripes and spots of white and tolerably regularly 

 blotched with black ; quills and tail dark olivaceous brown, the first primary externally narrowly mar- 

 gined with white ; underparts deep slate-grey, the centre of the abdomen nearly white, the breast spotted, 

 and the flanks spotted and barred, with white ; under tail-coverts warm ochreous buff ; bill orange-yellow, 

 except at the base, where it is red ; iris dark reddish brown ; legs green with a yellowish tinge, the joints 

 tinged with lead-blue. Total length about 8"5 inches, culmen 0"85, wing4'8, tail 2'2, tarsus T-45, middle 

 toe with claw 1"7. 



Adult Female (Corsica, 27th March) . Resembles the male, but is rather smaller, is less marked with white, 

 and duller in colour, the slate-blue coloration on the head and neck is more tinged with brown, the 

 flanks are tinged with brown, and there is more white on the abdomen. 



Young Male (Turkey, 14th September) . Resembles the female, but is still duller in colour, the head is 

 spotted to the base of the bill, the chin is nearly white, the rump is much darker, nearly black, and 

 there is rather more white on the underparts. 



Young in down. Covered with glossy jet-black down ; inner portion of both mandibles blue-grey, in front 

 of which a small black band crosses over the nostrils ; tip of the maxilla? pure white, bordered by a 

 black spot ; tip of the lower mandible black. 



The Spotted Crake inhabits Europe generally during the breeding-season, ranging further north 

 in the eastern than in the western part. In the autumn it migrates southward, and is found 

 commonly in winter in North Africa; and in Asia it is met with as far east as Eastern Siberia. 

 According to Yarrell (Brit. B. iii. p. 113) "it is more frequent in England in the maritime 

 counties than in others; and its appearance has been recorded in Cornwall, Devonshire, Dorset- 

 shire, Hampshire, and, in fact, all round the southern and up the eastern coast as high as 

 Durham and Northumberland." Mr. Mansel-Pleydell says that it is a summer visitant to 

 Dorsetshire, remaining from March to September. One was shot, he says, near Wareham in 

 September 1868, another at Weymouth on the 5th November 1852; one was taken alive in a 

 garden at Radipole, and was sent to the Zoological Gardens, Regent's Park, on the 27th October 

 1866, by Mr. Thompson, whose son also shot one at Lodmoor, Weymouth, on the 28th September 

 1872. Mr. Stevenson, referring to the occurrence of this species in Norfolk, writes (B. of Norf. 

 p. 393) as follows: — " The Spotted, like the Corn-Crake, visits us regularly in spring, and, though 

 chiefly confined to the ' Broad ' and ' Fen ' districts, is by no means uncommon between the 

 months of March and October. Considering the almost impenetrable swamps the Crakes fre- 

 quent in summer, the fact of their nests being but seldom found is of course no proof of their 



