Porzana parva, Scopoli. 



Vernacular ETam.es.— [ ? None. 



O far as we yet know, this species is found, inside 

 our limits, only in Sind. 



Elsewhere, it occurs pretty well all over Europe 

 (becoming an exceedingly rare visitant towards the 

 north), in Algiers and the Islands of the Mediterra- 

 nean. In Asia it has only as yet been recorded 

 from Erzeroum and Eastern Turkestan, but these are 

 birds that generally escape notice, and doubtless its range will 

 prove to be more extended than is at present supposed. 



I FOUND this species very common in the less-frequented 

 broads (or" dhunds," as they are locally called), in Sind, Trans- 

 Indus — Cis-Indus it is Baillon's Crake I think that occurs. 



I never flushed these out of sedge or reed, but found them 

 everywhere running about over the lotus and water-lily leaves, 

 or swimming about from leaf to leaf, and exhibiting far less 

 timidity than Baillon's Crake. Like this latter, they look, when 

 in the water, exactly like tiny Water-hens, jerking their tails 

 and nodding their heads precisely like these. But one thing I 

 noticed in this species which I never observed in either of the 

 others — I saw one bird voluntarily diving several times, apparently 

 in search of food. The others will dive when a shot is sud- 

 denly fired near them or when wounded, but this bird was 

 deliberately diving for its own amusement. 



When pressed, they rose more readily and flew more strongly 

 than Baillon's Crake, taking refuge in the thickets of tamarisk 

 that fringed the broads and were studded about most of them 

 as islands. 



I never heard the call of this species, probably because I 

 only observed them in the winter months ; it is said by Nau- 

 mann to be loud and to resemble the syllable " kife," " kik" fre- 

 frequently uttered. 



The food of this species seems to consist far more exclusively 

 of insects than that of Baillon's Crake. In more than a dozen 



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