210 THE LITTLE CRAKE. 



specimens that I examined the stomachs contained water bugs 

 and beetles, small insects of all kinds, and larvae of various, to 

 me quite unknown, species, with only here and there a few small 

 black seeds and a trace of vegetable matter ; of course, as is the 

 case with Baillon's Crake, there were a good many minute pebbles 

 or fragments of quartz, coarse sand in fact, mixed with the food, 

 in the trituration of which it no doubt plays an important part. 



No ONE has yet taken the eggs of this species in Sind. The 

 boatmen assured me that the birds bred there regularly, but I 

 think this requires confirmation. 



Dresser, speaking of Dr. Kutter's account of the nidification 

 of this species (J. F. O,, 1865, p. 334 et seq), says: 



" The first nest found by him, which contained three eggs, 

 he describes as being carefully constructed of dry, worn flag- 

 leaves, rather flat in form, the outside diameter being five and 

 a half inches, the diameter of the cup three and a half inches, 

 and the depth of the cup one inch. It was placed about 

 a foot above the surface of the water, and rested against 

 a dead alder branch, being carefully concealed by the sur- 

 rounding reed grass. A second nest was rather carelessly built 

 on dead aquatic herbage, only a few inches above the water ; 

 and another was built of dry sedge-grass. So far as he could 

 ascertain, eight seems to be the full complement of eggs deposit- 

 ed by this Crake. I possess a tolerably large series of its 

 eggs, which differ from those of Baillon's Crake in being larger 

 and paler, the ground colour more ochreous, and the surface 

 spots more scattered." 



IN THIS species the males are persistently larger (I speak 

 of perfect adults of course) than the females, as the following 

 resume of the measurements of six birds of each sex will 

 show : — 



Males. — Length, 8*o to 8*3 ; expanse, I2'0 to 12*8 ; wing, 4*0 to 

 4'2; tail from vent, 2'5 to 26 ; tarsus, V2 to 1-25 ; bill from gape, 

 0*87 to 0*95 ; weight, 1*5 to 1*9 ozs. 



Females. — Length, 775 to 8*0 ; expanse, ir5toi2'2j wing, 

 37 to 3*9 ; tail from vent, 2*25 to 2*4 ; tarsus, 1*16 to 12 ; bill 

 from gape, 0*83 to 0*89 ; weight, 1*25 to v6 ozs. 



I have recorded the irides as red ; the bill, legs, and feet green 

 with a yellowish tinge. I have not noted in any one case that 

 the basal portions of both mandibles were red, yet all European 

 writers attest this fact. My dry specimens do not show a trace 

 of this, but neither does one specimen I have from Galicia. 

 Did I omit to record the red at the base of the bill in every one 

 of the many specimens I preserved, many of them clearly old 

 adults, or is it possible that the red at the base of the bill is 



