CREX BAILLONII, (nobis) 

 Bailloris Crake. 



PLATE XV. 



C. supra brunneo-olivacea, dorso tectricibusque alarum albo nigroque maculatis ; collo 

 subtus pectoreque coerulescentibus, abdomine media albida, hypochondriis tectri- 

 cibusque cauda? inferioribus albo nigroque fasciatis. 



Ortygometra Baillonii, Shaw's Zool. xii. 228. 27- 

 Poule d'eau Baillon, Temm. Man. d'Ornith. ii. 692. 



A he rare occurrence of this bird in Britain, and the interest its occasional 

 appearance creates, as well as the inferior execution of the figures hitherto 

 published, have induced us to give it a place, at this early period, in the pages 

 of our work. The figure is taken from a British specimen caught about 

 three years ago near Melbourne in Cambridgeshire ; it is now in the posses- 

 sion of the Rev. Dr Thackery, F.L.S. Provost of King's College, Cambridge, 

 whose collection it enriches, and to whose kind attention we are indebted for 

 the examination of this and other rare British birds. The solitary and retired 

 habits which distinguish the various groups of the Grallidae, are equally pro- 

 minent in the subject now before us. Like most of its congeners, it is an in- 

 habitant of swamps, marshes, and the reedy margins of lakes, in the retire- 

 ment and recesses of which its peculiar habits screen it from observation, and 

 it is seldom or never seen, except when taken by surprize, and forced unwil- 

 lingly to a momentary exertion of its pinions. At other times, when aware 

 of the approach of danger, it evades its enemy by the rapidity of its progress 

 through, the entanglement of the coarse aquatic herbage which grows abun- 

 dantly in such situations, or by the facility which the compressed and wedge- 

 shaped form of its body enables it to thread the narrow interstices of the 

 thickest bed of reeds. It also swims and dives well, frequently escaping fur- 

 ther pursuit, by submerging its body, and remaining with its bill alone above 

 the surface of the water. Although so rare a visitant in Britain, it appears 

 that its migrations extend to equal parallels of latitude upon the Continent, 

 as it is not uncommon in the neighbourhood of Boulogne, where it annually 

 breeds in the marshes. It is also met with in other parts of France ; but is 

 (15; f 



