276 



Adult Male (Valencia, 19th March). Crown, nape, and hind neck dark reddish brown, with an olivaceous 

 tinge, and marked with blackish ; upper parts generally dark olivaceous reddish brown, marked with 

 black, and clearly spotted on the back, rump, and wing-coverts with white ; tail and quills dark brown, 

 the first primary marked on the outer web with buffy white ; sides of the head, throat, and underparts 

 deep slate-blue ; the lower abdomen, lower flanks, and under tail-coverts black, barred with white ; 

 under wing-coverts black, barred with white; bill sea-green at the base, becoming blackish green 

 towards the tip ; iris carmine-red ; legs dirty greyish flesh. Total length about 7 inches, culmen 

 0*75, wing 35, tail 2'05, tarsus 1 - 1, middle toe with claw 1"45. 



Adult Female (Valencia, May) . Resembles the male ; but the upper parts are rather lighter, and the under- 

 parts of a less pure blue. 



Young Female (S.E. Ural). Differs from the adult in lacking all trace of blue; the sides of the head are 

 warm ochreous brown, the chin and upper throat pure white ; lower throat, breast, and upper flanks 

 dull brownish ochreous ; centre of the abdomen white ; flanks and under tail-coverts black, barred with 

 white ; upper parts as in the adult, but scarcely so clearly marked. 



Nestling. Covered with black down ; bill white ; feet reddish white. 



The range of this, the least of our European Crakes, is very extensive ; for it is found throughout 

 Central and Southern Europe, ranging northward as far as Great Britain, extending eastward in 

 Asia as far as China, and occurring in Africa as far south as the Cape colony. 



In Great Britain it has occurred now and then ; and it is very possible that some of the 

 occurrences recorded as being of Porzana parva may really refer to the present species. Yarrell 

 writes (Brit. B. iii. p. 121) as follows: — "One of the earliest notices of the occurrence of this 

 bird with which I am acquainted is published in the second volume of the ' Zoological Journal,' 

 p. 27, on the exhibition of a specimen at the Zoological Club of the Linnean Society, which 

 belonged to Dr. Thackeray, the Provost of King's College, Cambridge, and which was caught 

 upon some ice at Melbourne, about nine miles south of Cambridge, in January 1823. 'To this 

 spot, originally fen land, the poor bird had resorted, in an inclement season, to obtain a meal, 

 but, having wandered far from its native and more congenial latitude, was so exhausted by want 

 of food, or the low temperature of the season, or the combined effects of both, as to allow itself 

 to be taken alive by the hand.' In the third volume of the same journal, p. 493, G. T. Fox, Esq., 

 of Durham, has recorded another specimen of this bird, which was killed within three miles of 

 Derby, in November 1821." Mr. Sealy, in the 'Zoologist' for 1859 (p. 6329), gives an account 

 of two nests of this Crake taken in Cambridgeshire ; and it has also bred in Norfolk. Mr. 

 Stevenson writes, respecting its occurrence in Norfolk (B. of Norf. ii. p. 401), as follows: — 

 "Messrs. Gurney and Fisher describe this diminutive Rail as 'very rare, but less so than the 

 Little Crake ;' yet, to my surprise, I find the records of its occurrence far less frequent ; and 

 although a nest and eggs, presumed to belong to this species, have been recently discovered, for 

 the first time, in Norfolk, I know of no instance in which it has been killed in this county 

 during the last twenty years. Mr. Lubbock, in his ' Fauna,' states that, to his knowledge, ' it 

 has been shot three times on Barton Fen, and appears far more rare than it really is, as it creeps 

 and skulks about, and a dog, however sagacious, can scarcely compel it to fly.' The same author 



