LITTLE CRAKE. 
Nest. “ Slightly concave on top ; composed of portions of small round or flat (according to 
the species) rushes or other aquatic plants, and concealed in rushes, etc., in shallow 
water or on the mud of swamps. Dimensions over all, about 4 in. by 6 in. in height ; 
egg-cavity, about | in. deep. There are usually two small (back and front) entrances 
to the nest, through the clump of herbage containing the nest ” (Campbell). 
Eggs. “ Clutch, four to eight ; oval in shape ; texture of shell fine ; surface glossy ; colour 
brownish- oh ve, fairly but faintly mottled over the whole surface with a darker shade 
of the same colour. Dimensions in inches, 1.0 to 1.12 by .75 to .77 ” (Campbell). 
Breeding season. October to January (Ramsay). 
Porzana 'palustris is the Australian representative of BaiUon’s Crake {Porzana 
pusilla) of Europe, and may be recognised from its European representative 
by its much smaller size. I have examined a series of thirteen specimens of 
the latter species, in my own collection and that of the British Museum. I find 
that P. palustris is a much paler bird, having the throat and breast paler and 
more of a French grey, instead of being dark leaden-grey as in P. pusilla^ which 
has also the bill slightly larger. The chief difference that I can perceive 
between P. pusilla and P. palustris ^ consists in the markings of the abdomen 
and fianks. In addition to the dark leaden-grey under-surface of P. pusilla, 
the abdomen and the flanks are black with distmct bars of white. In P. 
palustris, however, the under-surface is much lighter grey, as well as the 
abdomen, the white bars being confined to the flanks, both these and the black 
bars being very broad and of about equal width. 
Mr. C. F. Belcher tells me the only occasion he knows of this bird breeding 
near Geelong, was in 1891, when a nest of four eggs was taken. 
The birds figured and described are from New South Wales. 
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