220 
ALLEN’S naturalist’s LIBRARY. 
THE LAND-RAILS. GENUS CREX. 
Crex, Bechstein, Orn. Taschenb. p. 336 (1802). 
Type, Crex crex (Linn.). 
All the Crakes have much shorter and stouter bills than the 
true Rails, the culmen in the genus Crex being less than the 
!l "O frontal shield as^in 
the Water-Hens. 
Only one species of true Crake is known, viz., the Corn- 
Ciake or Land-Rail described below. 
I. THE LAND-RAIL. CREX CREX, 
Ralluscrex, Linn. Syst Nat. i. p. 261 (1766). 
Crex pralensis, Bechst. ; Macgill. Brit. B. iv. jj. ,527 (18^2) • 
Dresser, B Eur. vii. p. 291, pi. 499 (1878); B. O. U.’ 
List. Brit. B. p 149 (1883); Saunders, ed. Yarrell’s Brit. 
P- '57 (1883); Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. ii. p. 531; 
(1884); Saunders, Man. Brit. B. p. 493 (1889). 
cVi^A’ crex^ Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit, xxiii. p. 82 (1894). 
{Plate CXVIl.) 
Adult Male in Summer Plumag:e.— General colour above brown 
mottled with black centres to the feathers, which have more 
or less of an ashy shade on their margins ; scapulars 
hke the back, with broad black centres; wing-coverts uni- 
form bright chestnut ; bastard wing, primary-coverts and 
quills chestnut brown, the first primary e.xternally isabel- 
Ime bull, the inner secondaries like the back, with black 
centres, and indistinguishable from the scapulars ; tail- 
feathers light reddish-brown, centred with black ; crown of head 
fulvoufs brown, mottled with black centres to the feathers the 
two colours arranged in streaks; hind-ncck and sides of neck 
fulvous brown, with smaller blackish-brown spots ; lores and 
feathers below the eye, as well as a band along the upper ear- 
coverts to the sides of the neck sandy-buff; above the eye a 
band of ashy-grey, widening towards the sides of the nape • 
ear-coverts, cheeks, lower throat, fore-neck, and chest ashy- 
grey ; the chin and upper throat isabelline ; breast and 
