226 
ai.len’s nattiralist’s library. 
the case with Baillon’s Crake, there were a good many minute 
pebbles or fragments of quartz, coarse sand in fact, mixed with 
the food, m the triturition of which it no doubt forms an 
important part.” 
Nest.— Mr. Eagle Clarke found the nest of this species in 
Slavonia, m an extensive and particularly secluded shallow 
marsh near the village of Obrez. The surface of the marsh 
wp clothed with sallow-brakes, reed-beds, and areas covered 
with tussocks of sedge. 'J’he nest, containing seven eggs, was 
placed on the side, not in the centre, of one of these tussocks 
of medium size. It was merely a depression, amply lined with 
short broad pieces of withered reed blades, and was about six 
inches above the surface of the water, which was here about 
eighteen inches deep. 
Eggfs. Seven or eight in number. Ground-colour pale 
olive, flecked with brown; oval in shape. Axis i-i inch • 
diam., 0-85. ’ 
THE SPOTTED CRAKES. GENUS PORZANA. 
Porzana, Vieillot, Analyse, p. 61 (i8r6). 
Type, P. porzana (Linn.). 
'Fhe genus Porzana resembles Zaporiiia in having the tarsus 
shorter than the middle toe and claw, but the shape of the 
wings is different. The secondary quills fall short of the 
primaries by as much as the length of the hind toe and claw, 
and they are consequently more rounded than in Zapornia. 
The sexes are alike in plumage. 
I. THE SPOTTED CRAKE. PORZANA PORZAN.A. 
Ralhis porzana, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 262 (1766). 
Crex porzana, Macgill. Brit. B. iv. p. 535 (1852); Seebohm, 
Hist. Brit. B. ii. p. 540 (1884). 
Porzana maruetta, Bp. ; Dresser, B. Eur. vii. p. 267, pi, 496 
(1878); B. O. U. List. Brit. B. p. 147 (1883); Saunders, 
ed. Yarrell’s Brit. B. iii. p. 143 (1884); id. Man. Brit. B. 
p. 495 (1889). 
Porzana porzana, Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxiii. p. 93 
(1894). 
{Plate CXVl/I.) 
