2l6 THE SPOTTED CRAKE. 



only reach it by swimming, which it can readily do ; for it 

 swims with grace and ease, jerking its head as it paddles along. 

 The nest of the Spotted Crake, resembling that of the Water- 

 Rail, is a careless, bulky structure of flags, dried reeds, and 

 leaves of aquatic plants, lined with finer materials ; and the 

 eggs, from nine to twelve in number, are deposited in May or 

 early in June. They are oval in shape, the surface of the shell 

 being smooth and rather glossy. In ground-colour they are warm 

 ochreous or dull ochreous marked with fine dots, with violet-grey 

 shell markings and reddish brown spots and blotches, which are 

 tolerably regularly scattered over the surface of the shell. In size 

 those in my collection vary from 1*28 by 0*95 to 1-42 by 0*98 inch. 

 "The nest is exceedingly difficult to find, being very carefully 

 concealed amongst the reeds or long aquatic grass, and is placed 

 either on the damp ground or on a platform of broken down 

 reeds in the water." 



EUROPEAN writers say that the females are rather smaller than 

 the males. My series of measurements show absolutely no 

 difference of this kind, though individuals of both sexes, appa- 

 rently adult, vary very much in dimensions : — 



Length, 87 to 9*2; expanse, 14-5 to 157; wing, 4*3 to 4*8 ; 

 tail from vent, 185 to 2*1 ; tarsus, i'2i to 1*43 ; bill from gape, 

 077 to 0*9 ; weight, 3 to 4 ozs. 



The legs and feet are generally bright olive green ; the irides 

 reddish brown : the tip of the lower and the greater part of the 

 upper mandible dusky olive green ; the basal two-thirds of lower 

 mandible and a band at base of the upper one wax yellow with 

 an orange tinge on culmen, and a red spot at the base of the 

 maxilla on either side. 



But there are marked variations : I have recorded the irides 

 as dark red, brownish yellow, and lightish brown, in the case of 

 particular birds. In a young bird, lower mandible (except tip) 

 and the base of upper mandible green, the rest blackish, and of this 

 the legs and feet were purplish dusky, and I shot one specimen, 

 an adult, of which the legs and feet were a sort of dull orange ! 



THE PLATE will suffice to enable the species to be recognized, but 

 it is not altogether satisfactory ; the bills are not quite correctly 

 coloured, — the normal colouration I have already described. In 

 the male the back is much too dark, and not enough of an 

 olive brown ; the white markings on the wings are much 

 too regular and scale-like. In the female the white markings on 

 the wings are altogether omitted. In both sexes the broad 

 bandings of the flanks are drawn too regularly and too dark. 

 Moreover, I may add that in really adult males the white spot- 

 ting nearly entirely disappears from the breast, and is never in 

 either sex in the regular rows that the plate represents. 



