LITTLE CRAKE. 



Zapornia pusilla, Steph. 

 Poule d'eau Poussin. 



We have preserved the term Little, given to this species by Montagu, although the bird is somewhat larger 

 than that named after M. Baillon, which has also occurred in this country even more frequently than the 

 subject of the present article. Indeed, except the examples obtained by Montagu, that which belonged to 

 Mr. Plasted of Chelsea — also noticed by Montagu in the Supplement to his Ornithological Dictionary, — and a 

 specimen taken alive in a drain in Ardwick meadows, near Manchester, in the autumn of 1807, by Mr. James 

 Hall, as recorded in Loudon's Magazine of Natural History, vol. 2. p. 275, we are not aware of any other 

 instances of this species having been obtained in this country. This Little Crake is, however, by no means so 

 rare on the European Continent : it is even common in the eastern countries of Europe, in Italy and in 

 Germany ; more rare in the northern parts of France, and only occasionally taken in Holland. It principally 

 frequents marshes, but is sometimes seen on the higher and more cultivated soils. The habits of the smaller 

 species of Gallinules, says Montagu, are their principal security : they are not only capable of diving and 

 concealing their bodies under water, with only the beak above the surface to secure respiration, but run with 

 celerity, and conceal themselves amongst the rushes and flags of swampy places, and are with difficulty roused 

 even with the assistance of dogs, depending more on concealment in thick cover than upon their wings to 

 avoid danger. Insects, slugs, the softer aquatic vegetables and seeds are the principal food of this species. 

 It constructs a nest among reeds, upon the broken stems of rushes and water plants, and lays seven or eight 

 oval-shaped eggs, of a yellowish brown colour, spotted with elongated marks of darker olive brown. In the 

 adult male, the eyebrows, cheeks, front and sides of the neck, breast and belly are of uniform slate grey, 

 without any spots ; abdomen and flanks mixed and barred with brown and white ; the top of the head and all 

 the upper parts generally olive brown, the feathers on the middle of the back much darker in colour, almost 

 black, and varied with a few white marks, but without any white on the wings or wing-coverts ; the tertials 

 dark in the centre, olive brown at the edge ; the primaries uniform dusky; under tail-coverts dark lead colour, 

 almost black, but barred with white ; beak olive green ; the base orange yellow ; irides reddish hazel ; legs and 

 toes olive green ; length seven inches and a half. 



Notwithstanding some slight differences, we believe the Olivaceous Gallinule of Montagu to be identical 

 with the adult male bird here described ; and we also consider his little Gallinule to be a young bird of this 

 same species, which may be thus described ; eyebrows and sides of the head light ash colour ; throat 

 whitish ; chest and belly brownish buff, thighs and flanks ash coloured, barred with brown and white ; under 

 tail-coverts tipped with white ; upper parts reddish brown ; the dark space on the middle of the back varied 

 with a few white spots ; wing-coverts olive ; beak olive without the orange base ; eyes dark hazel ; legs and 

 feet olive. Whole length seven inches and a half. Young birds are still lighter in their general colouring ; 

 the whole of the throat and neck is whitish ; the white marks on the back are very few in number, or scarcely 

 perceptible ; and the feathers on the flanks are brown, with white bars, without the ash colour. 



We have figured an adult male and young bird of the natural size. 



