228 THE BROWN AND ASHY CRAKE, 



EGGS OF THIS species may be found from early in May until 

 the close of September, or perhaps even later ; and I have no 

 doubt that, like the Water-Hen, the Brown and Ashy Crake 

 rears several broods during the season. 



I never had the luck to find a nest myself, and so shall quote 

 the accounts of friends who have taken them. 



Mr. F. R. Blewitt, the first ornithologist, I believe, who ever 

 found a nest of this species, tells us that it " begins to pair in 

 April, and lays from May to August. The first nest I 

 obtained I took at Jhansi on the 7th August 1868. 

 It was placed just above the bank of a small nalla on a low- 

 growing wild 'corounda' bush. It was simply a collection of 

 thin twigs and grass put together, just like the nest of a Dove, 

 only in size a little larger. The nest was placed about the centre 

 of the bush, about six feet from the ground, between and upheld 

 by numerous slender branches. It contained two fresh eggs, 

 and a third was laid by the female bird, which was much injured 

 unfortunately in capturing her, and which died in laying it. 



"On the 27th May, and on different dates in June 1869, in the 

 Saugor District, my men secured three nests, with four eggs 

 each, in the high grass and rushes growing on the islets in the 

 Dhussain River, ten miles west of Saugor. The first nest was 

 discovered by one of the party who had to return for the stuffers 

 to shoot the parent bird. When, however, some six hours after 

 they came to take the eggs, they found that one egg had hatched 

 off, and that a second young one was freeing itself from the 

 shell. The other two eggs, with the female, were secured. 

 Strange, but true, the escaped young bird eluded the pursuit of 

 the men by diving and hiding in the reeds in the water. A 

 week after, the second and third nests, with four eggs each, were 

 similarly found. They were one and all rough constructions, 

 exclusively made of the surrounding grass and rushes on the 

 high ground of the islets, piled up loosely to the height of about 

 six inches, with a slight depression in the centre for the eggs. 

 I think it was about the end of June that, as my men and I 

 were searching the islets in this Dhussain River for eggs, four 

 nearly half-fledged Brown Rails, of one family no doubt, suddenly 

 dropped from an islet, where they were secreted, into the river. 

 We gave immediate chase and surrounded them, but they baffled 

 us in the grass and rush clumps, and mysteriously disappeared. 

 We searched the islet and every likely hiding-place for them 

 without success ; at last, spying a hole, about a foot in diameter, 

 in the left bank just above the water edge, I told one of the men 

 to insert his arm in it, and, to our utter astonishment, he brought 

 out, one after the other, the four young birds. How they all 

 managed to elude us and find their way to this supposed place 

 of security, passes comprehension. 



" The eggs (which you can best describe, as I have sent you 

 each set as found) were white or pinky white, with brown spots, 



