224 
SPOTTED CRAKE. 
Length about nine inches : beak yellowish-green, 
with its base red : its forehead, eyebrows, and throat 
are leaden-grey : the sides of its head are grey, marked 
with black : the upper parts of the body are olive- 
brown, with each feather black in the centre, and 
varied with delicate spots and streaks of pure white : 
the breast and the under parts of the body are olive, 
shaded with ash-colour, and spotted with white ; the 
spots on the breast being rounded, and on the sides 
disposed in transverse bands : the middle tail-feathers 
are edged with white : the under tail-coverts are pure 
white : the legs are yellowish-green : the irides brown. 
The adult female has the ashy colour on her throat 
and neck less extended : the sides of the head are 
spotted with brown, and the base of her beak is not 
so red. In the autumn both sexes have the beak of 
an olive-green with a brown point. The young, pre- 
vious to moulting, have the throat of an ashy-white, 
sprinkled with white spots ; or whitish with small 
brown streaks : and on the under parts of the plumage 
the white spots are more numerous than in the adults : 
the under tail-coverts are bright red. 
This inhabits the borders of the rivers, lakes, and 
ponds, where reeds, rushes, and other elevated aquatic 
plants abound : its nest is curiously constructed of 
rushes, and other light buoyant materials, woven and 
matted together, so as to float on the surface of the 
water like a boat ; and to prevent its being swept 
away by floods, it is fastened to the pendent stalk of 
one of the reeds, by which it is also skreened from 
the sight. The female lays seven or eight white eggs ; 
and the young, which at first are dusky black, take 
