LITTLE CRAKE. 
223 
knocked it down close to the river’s edge, when the bird took 
to the water and swam right across to the other side of the 
Thames. 
The food of the Corn-Crake is varied, and consists of worms, 
slugs, snails, small lizards, and also of seeds and plants. 
Nest. — A simple structure of dry grass and plants, placed on 
the ground. 
Eggs_ — From seven to ten in number. Ground-colour 
varying from stone grey to greenish-white or bullish clay-colour, 
with numerous dots and spots of rufous distributed over the 
egg, the underlying grey spots very distinct and equally 
distributed. Sometimes the rufous markings collect round the 
large end of the egg and form a blotch ; but in many eggs, 
particularly of the stone-coloured type, the spots are more 
scattered and universally distributed over the surface. Axis, 
I-4-1-55 inch; diam., ro-i'i. 
THE LITTLE CRAKES. GENUS ZAPORNIA. 
Zapornia, Leach, Syst. Cat. Mamm. & llirds, Brit. Mus. p. 34 
(1816). 
Type, Z. parva (Scop.). 
The small Crakes of the genera Zapornia and Porzana 
differ from the true Crakes (^Crex) in their long middle toe, 
which, with the claw, exceeds the tarsus in length. The sexes 
in the genus Zapornia differ in colour, and the secondaries are 
conspicuously shorter than the primaries, falling short of them 
by as much as the length of the inner toe and claw, so that the 
wing is decidedly pointed in shape for a Crake. 
I. THE LITTLE CRAKE. ZAPORNIA P.ARVA. 
Rallus parvus, Scop. Ann. i. jr. 108 (1769). 
Crex pusilhi (ncc Ball.), Macgill Brit. B. iv. p. 541 ('852). 
Porzana parva, Dresser, B. Eur. vii. p. 283, pi. 498 (1878); 
B. O. U. List Brit. B. p. 148 (1883); Saunders, ed. 
Yarrell’s Brit. B. iii. p. 148 (1883); id. Man. Brit. B. 
p. 497 (1889). 
