230 THE BROWN AND ASHY CRAKE. 



quite fresh, a faint tinge, in some of salmon pink, in others of 

 yellow, which, however, generally disappears after the eggs have 

 been kept a few months. The markings are streaky blotches 

 and spots, usually very dense at the large end, but thinly 

 scattered elsewhere. In colour they are purplish or brownish red, 

 and somewhat pale purple, the latter seeming to underlie the 

 former in clouds and streaks. 



I have but few eggs (16) of this species. Captain Butler, 

 who has an enormous series, says : — " The eggs vary much in 

 colour, but I think the commonest type is a pale salmon white 

 ground covered with blotches, spots and specks of reddish 

 brown, in most cases underlaid with pale lilac markings. This 

 type, when the lilac markings are wanting, presents us with 

 exact miniatures of the eggs of Gallinida phcenictira. Some 

 eggs are very pale, being faintly peppered with specks of reddish 

 brown underlaid very indistinctly with numerous pale lilac 

 markings. Another egg is yellowish white, with a small hazy 

 cap at the large end of reddish brown specks underlaid with 

 one or two faint blotches of pale lilac with a few specks scattered 

 over the rest of the shell. In some eggs the reddish brown 

 spots predominate, in some the lilac predominates, and in others 

 the lilac and reddish brown markings are about equal. One 

 egg I have is altogether white, with the exception of two 

 small red spots at the large end, and a few specks, scarcely 

 visible, on other parts of the shell." 



The few eggs I have vary from 1*4 to v6 in length, and from 

 0*99 to 1*15 in width, but the average of sixteen is 1*49 by I'l 

 nearly. 



THE MALES in this species average appreciably larger 

 than the females, as the following resume of a large series of 

 measurements indicates : — 



Males. — Length, 10-87 to 12*0; expanse, 1575 to 17-0; wing, 

 4*9 to 5*3 ; tail from vent, 2-4 to 2*8 ; tarsus, 1*9 to 2*1 ; bill 

 from gape, 1*3 to r68 ; weight, 4 to 6 ozs. 



Females. — Length, io*o to 11*3 ; expanse, 15*0 to 15*82 ; wing, 

 4*4 to 4*9; tail from vent, 2*3 to 2*62 ; tarsus, 17 to I '8; bill 

 from gape, 1*2 to 1*4; weight, 37 to 4*9 ozs. 



The irides vary from reddish brown to crimson ; the bill is 

 green, culmen dusky, tip of lower mandible (sometimes of upper 

 also) lavender to blue. In one or two I have noticed a small red 

 spot on the middle of the lower mandible. The legs and feet 

 are dull lake red in adults in the breeding season, darker in the 

 cold season ; reddish brown in younger birds. 



THE PLATE represents the legs of even the old bird as too 

 brightly coloured, while in the young bird (with the black face) 



