838 A PRACTICAL HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



of wing streaked white. Scarcely any birds in moult are available 

 but there appears to be a complete moult in autumn or late summer 

 and a partial one (but including, at all events sometimes, whole tail) 

 early in year and sometimes as late as April. Summer. — As winter 

 but chin pale slate instead of whitish. 



Adult female. Winter. — As male but with more white on throat 

 and feathers behind eye usually tipped brown making an indistinct 

 and broken stripe. Summer. — Chin and centre of throat a,shy 

 much as male in winter. 



Nestling. — Like that of P. parva. Down is replaced by juvenile 

 feathers to tips of which it clings for very short time. 



Juvenile. — Upper -parts as adult ; lores, eye-stripes, sides of 

 head and sides of neck buff-brown mottled or speckled darker 

 brown or blackish ; chin and upper -throat white ; lower-throat 

 and breast whitish-buff, more or less heavily barred dark brown but 

 sometimes bars almost obsolete ; centre of breast bufnsh -white 

 usually unmarked ; flanks and under tail-coverts browner not so 

 black as in adult but barred white ; rest of plumage as adult but 

 wings sometimes more spotted white though often no more so than 

 in adult. 



First winter. — The juvenile body-plumage is very partially 

 moulted Oct -Nov. First summer. — Apparently like adult but no 

 moulting birds available. 



Measurements and structure. — $ wing 87-94 mm., tail 38-46, 

 tarsus 27-29, bill from feathers 16.5-18 (8 measured). 2 wing 85-93, 

 bill 15-17. Primaries : 2nd and 3rd longest, 1st 10-15 mm. shorter, 

 4th 1-4 shorter, 5th 4-7 shorter. Rest of structure as in P. parva 

 but secondaries longer reaching 6th or 7th primaries. 



Soft parts. — Bill green, blackish along ridge of culmen ; legs 

 and feet olive -green ; iris red. 



Characters and allied forms. — P. p. pusilla (X. Asia) has paler 

 (more ashy) under -parts and prominent brown stripe through lores 

 and ear-coverts ; other forms occur in S. Africa (P. p. obscura) and 

 N. Zealand (P. p. affinis). Smallest of British Crakes, inner second- 

 aries longer and upper-parts more reddish and less olive-brown than 

 in P. parva and with more spots and streaks of white which are 

 mottled black, edge of wing always white, female with breast slate 

 not buff, juvenile with breast more barred. 



Breeding-habits. — Haunts lagoons and shallows of lakes with 

 thick growth of vegetation. Nest. — A neatly rounded cup of dead 

 leaves of reed or aquatic grasses, sometimes low down in thick 

 growth of sedge occasionally as much as a foot or two from water- 

 surface in Salicornia bush, but always cleverly concealed from above. 

 Eggs.- — Usually 6 to 8, somewhat elongated in shape, with high gloss, 

 ochreous, finely stippled and spotted with yellowish -umber. Average 

 of 75 eggs, 29.06X20.66. Max. : 31x21.9 and 30.7x22. Min. : 

 25.3X19.5 and 27.2x19 mm. Breeding -season. — From latter part 

 April onward in S. Europe, but as many nests are destroyed fresh 





