SPOTTED CRAKE. 
229 
in Scandinavia. Eastwards it ranges as far as Yarkand and Gilgit 
in summer, and in winter it is found throughout the southern 
border of the Mediterranean, as far as Abyssinia, as well as in 
the Persian Gulf, and Northern India, from Smd to Oudh and 
Calcutta. It has twice occurred in Greenland. 
Habits.— Like all Rails, the Spotted Crake is a bird of the 
most skulking habits, and on migration it will sometimes be 
found in little reed-covered pools, from which it may sometimes 
be flushed by a dog, when its presence is least suspected. In 
such manner I have procured a few specimens in the Thames 
valley, near Cookham. Seebohm obtained a large number of 
eggs of this bird at Valkensvaard, in Holland. He writes as 
follows: — “The habits of the Spotted Crake are precisely the 
same as those of the Water-Rail, to which bird it otherwise 
bears so close a resemblance that it is difficult to believe that 
the two birds ought to be placed in different genera. 1 hey are 
both equally shy and skulking ; they frequent the same fenny and 
marshy districts ; one is as unsociable as the other, and as un- 
willing to take wing ; their flight is the same-a heavy, laboured 
straight flight through the air, with rapid beats of the broad 
rounded wings. The note during the breeding season is the 
same liquid whit, though that of the smaller bird is not so loud ; 
and the position of the nest and the materials of which it is 
composed are so similar that a description of one reads like a 
copy of that of the other. ’ 
Nest.— Large for the size of the bird, built in clumps of rushes 
or amongst reeds. Those found by Seebohm in Holland 
stood nearly a foot above the level of the water, and were com- 
posed of flat leaves of the reed, sedge, and other water-plants, 
and generally, when built in the reeds, had a foundation of flat 
broken rushes. 
Eggs.— From eight to twelve in number. Ground-colour 
olive or clay-brown to reddish clay-colour, or chocolate. 'I'he 
spots are light or dark reddish-brown, and are distnbuted 
over the egg ; the underlying grey spots mixed up with the 
darker ones, and sometimes quite as distinct as the latter. In 
rare instances the reddish spots are confluent, and form 
blotches. Axis, I'SS-rS inch; diam., o'gs-i-os. 
