368 
ALECTORIDES. 
Porzana maruetta. 
THE EUROPEAN SPOTTED CRAKE. 
Rallus porzana, Linn. S. N. ed. 12, I. 1766, 262. 
Crex porzana, Jenyns, Man. Brit. Vert. An. 1835, 218. — Naum. Vog. Deutschl. IX. 1838, 523, pi. 
237. — Macgill. Man. II. 114 ; Hist. Brit. B. IV. 1852, 535. 
Ortygometra porzana, Steph. Gen. Zool. XII. 223. — Bonap. Comp. List, 1838, 53. — Keys. & 
Blas. Wirt). Eur. 67. — Gray, Gen. B. 111. 593; Cat. Brit. B. 1863, 179. — Reinh. Ibis, 
1861, 12 (Greenland). 
Gallinula maculata, Brehm, Vog. Deutsebl. 1831, 698. 
Gallinula punctata, Brehm, t. c. 699, pi. 36, fig. 3. 
Ortygometra maruetta, Leach, Syst. Cat. 1816, 34. 
Porzana maruetta. Gray', List Gen. B. 1841, 91. • — Pudgw. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. Vol. 3, 1880, 
201, 222 ; Nom. N. Am. B. 1881, no. 573. ■ — Coues, Cheek List, 2d ed. 1882, no. 678. 
Spotted Crake, Yare. Brit. B. ed. 2, III. 97, fig. ; ed. 3, III. 114, fig. 
Hab. Paltearctic Region ; occasional in Greenland (cf. Reinhardt, “Ibis,” 1861, p. 122). 
Sp. Char. Adult : Above, russet-brown, relieved by oblong spots of black and irregular, mostly 
longitudinal, streaks of white ; crown streaked with black, but without a median longitudinal stripe 
of this color, as in P. Carolina ; a wide superciliary stripe, malar region, chin, and throat, soft mouse- 
gray ; lower hall ol lores dusky, upper half dull whitish ; auriculars, neck, and jugulum light 
hair-brown, irregularly speckled with white ; abdomen whitish ; sides and flanks brown, barred 
with white : crissum, plain creamy buff. Young: Similar to the above, but superciliary stripe 
finely speckled with white, the malar region, chin, and throat whitish, speckled with brown, the 
breast and belly washed with pale buff. 
Wing, about 4.25-4.50 ; culmen, .68— .72 ; tarsus, 1.20-1.30; middle toe, 1.25-1.35. Bill “red- 
dish yellow, brighter at the base,” iris reddish brown, feet yellowish green (Macgillivray). 
This species is about the size of the Common “ Sora”of North America ( Porzana Carolina ), and 
resembles it very closely in coloration, the upper parts being almost precisely similar. It may be 
immediately distinguished, however, by the white speckling of the neck and breast, and the streaked 
crown, characteristic of all stages, and in the adult plumage having no black on the lores or 
throat. 
The “Spotted Crake” of England, or “Porzane Marouette” of the French, is, 
according to M. Gerbe, a bird common in the greater part of Europe, Asia, and 
Africa, and more especially in the warmer portions of that region. It is a bird of 
the old continent, and has no other claim to a place in our fauna than its occasional 
presence in Greenland. Gerbe says that it is not rare in any part of Prance, not even 
the more northerly, where it usually arrives in March, and from which it departs in 
