OLIVACEOUS CRAKE. 125 



thence. The locality the Olivaceous Crake frequents is 

 much the same as the last described ; the specimens obtained, 

 were met with more in open ground than in cover of rushes, 

 sedges, weeds, &c, and it may thus be concluded, that the 

 bird is not so partial to a thick grassy cover ; it has been 

 known to frequent some open grounds, that lay low, without 

 being wet or marshy, during the greater part of the summer, 

 in which situation it was almost daily observed by the owner 

 of the land, who Avas himself an ornithologist. The present 

 species differs from the last, in not unfrequently perching 

 on the branch of a tree, only concealing itself under some 

 few overhanging leaves. During the spring of the year, it 

 resorts to the usual cover of grassy and reedy places, where 

 it seeks for a spot to make arrangements for its nest ; 

 the extensive muddy flats that surround ponds or slow 

 streams, suit its habits particularly, and in such localities the 

 nest is generally placed among the rushes. The nest is the 

 most difficult of all its family to find, not only on account 

 of its being so cleverly concealed, but because it is placed in 

 the most inaccessible parts of the soft ground ; it requires in 

 the first place an exceedingly good dog, even where a pair of 

 these birds is known to be, and besides an apparatus of 

 planks to reach the spot. 



Before the end of May or beginning of June, the Oliva- 

 ceous Crake does not begin the construction of a nest, by 

 which time the rushes have attained one foot in height ; the 

 nest itself is placed either on a tuft of rushes, or on the 

 very surface of the water ; in which case the surrounding- 

 rushes are bent down and interwoven with grasses, &c, so as 

 to form a cradle, and when the bird sits on the eggs, she 

 draws the next leaves of the rushes over her in the shape of 

 a hood ; the size of the nest is consequently much larger than 

 that of the spotted crake. 



