230 
British Birds. 
Baillon’s Crake. 
The Little Crake. 
The Spotted Crake. 
are similar to those of other Rails, and it makes its nest in tussocks in the marshes. 
The eggs are seven or eight in number, of an oval shape and olive in colour with 
brown markings ; they measure a little over an inch in length. 
In the Spotted Crake the sexes are alike in plumage and the 
secondaries are as long as the primaries, so that the wing is 
more rounded. It is an olive-brown bird with small white spots 
distributed among the black markings of the upper surface : the 
throat and breast are ashy, and the bill is yellow, inclining to orange-red at the base. 
To Great Britain the present species is a summer visitor, but is everywhere very 
local in its distribution. It is distributed throughout the greater part of Europe in 
summer, and extends to Central Asia, wintering in the Indian Peninsula and North- 
eastern Africa. In habits it resembles the Water-Rail, and it makes a somewhat 
THE SPOTTED 
CRAKE. 
( Porzana porzana.) 
large nest of reeds and sedge on the ground in reed-beds. 
The eggs are from eight 
to a dozen in number, of the usual double spotted Ralline type, and measure about 
an inch-and-a-half in length. 
THE CAROLINA 
CRAKE. 
(Porzana Carolina.) 
A single specimen of this North American species has been ob- 
tained near New- 
bury in Berkshire. 
It differs from the 
Spotted Crake in having the cheeks 
and centre of the throat black. It is a 
plentiful species in some oi the U nited 
States, and wanders south in winter 
to Central and South America. In 
habits it resembles our Spotted Crake, 
but the eggs are slightly smaller. 
The Carolina Crake. 
