834 A PRACTICAL HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



99-112, bill 18-22. Primaries : 2nd and 3rd longest, 1st 10-14 mm. 

 shorter, 4th 1-5 shorter, 5th 5-9 shorter. Other structure as in 

 Porzana porzana. 



Soft parts. — Bill (ad. winter) yellow, tip green, (juv. and 1st 

 winter) yellowish -green, tip brown ; legs and feet green ; iris 

 brown.* 



Characters. — No subspecies. Distinguished from Porzana porzana 

 in adult by unspotted slate sides of head and throat and black fore- 

 head and throat, in juvenile by unspotted white throat, buff breast, 

 uniform brown sides of crown with black median stripe and un- 

 sjDotted neck, and from other British Crakes by size and black stripes 

 on head. 



Breeding-habits. — A marsh -haunting species, but not confined to 

 large swamps. Nest. — Built of weeds and grass. Almost always in 

 a clump of vegetation growing in water, sometimes neatly built but 

 not invariably. Eggs. — 6 to 12 or even up to 15 in number, brownish 

 buff, spotted rather sparingly with red-brown and purplish : darker 

 than those of Virginian Rail. Size varies from 33.5 to 30.4 in length 

 and 24.1 to 21.5 mm. in breadth. Breeding -season. — From mid -May 

 onward. Incubation. — No details. 



Food. — Aquatic insects, small mollusca, Crustacea and seeds. 

 (Hatch.) 



Distribution. — British Isles. — Five. Near Newbury (Berks.), 

 Oct., 1864 (Saunders, p. 510). Near Cardiff, 1888 (Birds Glamorgan, 

 p. 113). Male Tiree (I. Hebrides), Oct. 25, 1901 (E. Lort Phillips, 

 Bull. B.O.G., xii, p. 26). Male immature Ness, Lewis (0. Hebrides), 

 Nov. 12, 1913 (W. R. Ogilvie-Grant, Brit. B., vn, p. 202). Male 

 adult Slyne Head Lt. (Galway), April 11, 1920 (C. J. Patten, Irish 

 Nat., 1920, p. 59). Also an immature bird captured at sea 100 miles 

 off west Ireland (C. Borrer, Brit. B., xm, p. 298). 



Distribution. — Abroad. — Breeds in N. America, winters from 

 California and S. Carolina through West Indies and Central 

 America to S. America, accidental in Bermudas and Greenland. 



PORZANA PARVA 



480. Porzana parva (Scop.)— THE LITTLE CRAKE. 



Ralltjs parvus Scopoli, Annus 1 Historico-Natur., p. 108 (17G9 — > 



Carniola). 



Gallinula Foljambei Montagu, Suppl. Orn. Diet., under " Gallinule — 



Olivaceous " (1813— Norfolk). 



Ortygomelra olivacea Stephens, Shaw's Gen. Zool., xn, i. p. 226 (1824— 



New name for Gallinula Foljambei). 



Porzana parva (Scopoli), Yarrell, in, p. 148 ; Saunders, p. 511. 



Description. — Adult male. Winter. — Centre of fore-head and crown 

 and back of neck olive-brown, feathers of crown sometimes with 



* Prof. C. J. Patten states (Ibis, 1923, p. 122) that an adult male obtained 

 in April had the tip of the bill rich carmine and the iris ruby-red. 



