22 BIRDS OF THE DISTRICT OF GEELONG 
Lower Barwon, which I believe to be its chief home 
in our district. They have been seen at intervals 
about the patches of reeds which dot the banks of the 
river between Barwon Bridge and Prince's Bridge. 
LITTLE CRAKE 
Zapornia pusilla palustris 
One of the more extensive backwaters of Lake Conne- 
warre is called hy the shooters the Hospital Lake, 
because, they say, the wounded swan and duck make 
for its weedy shallows and rush-begirt banks to recover 
or perish, as fate may have it. Now, on this Hospital 
Lake, near the marginal sedges, there is much weed 
on the surface of the water, and so thickly matted 
together as to form a kind of blanket, which the 
shooters call bullock-hide." And this " bullock- 
hide " is one of the surest places to see what the lake- 
men call Water-wrens," but which are, I believe, 
the Little Crakes, for, though I have never absolutely 
identified this bird in the open, I know the shooters 
distinguish the " Water-wrens " from the larger 
Crakes (Spotted Crake) which build in the thatch- 
grass. 
It is only very early in the morning, when the 
shooter is lying perdu in his flat-bottomed punt in 
some thick clump of reeds, waiting for the whistle 
of heavier wings, that his attention is apt to be caught 
by these very small Rails as they dart out from the 
