baillon’s crake. 
under wing-coverts and axillaries dusky-brown, with a few 
white spots and bars ; quills dusky below ; bill green, darker 
at tip ; legs, feet, and claws olive ; iris crimson. Total length, 
7 inches; culmen, o 75 ; wing, 3'5 ; tail, i ’75 i tarsus, i'o5 ; 
middle toe and claw, 1-5. 
Winter Plumage. — Appears to have a whiter throat than in 
summer, and in all probability the entire throat gradually 
becomes slaty-grey as the breeding season approaches; bill 
grass-green, the culmen dusky; tarsi and toes greenish; iris 
reddish orange. 
Young.— Is like the adult on the upper surface, and is 
similarly marked with black and white, but the general tone of 
the plumage is rather more rufous ; the head is like the back ; 
sides of the face rufous-brown, as also tlie eyebrow ; lores 
whitish; throat, breast, and abdomen dull white; the fore- 
neck and chest rufescent, barred across with dusky ; lower 
flanks, vent, and under tail-coverts black, barred with white ; 
iris light ashy-brown. 
The young birds probably do not attain their full grey 
plumage for at least a year, as a specimen (in the British 
Museum), procured near Potchcfstroom on the 24th of April, 
is still in immature plumage, like the young bird above 
described, and differs only in the whiter under surface, the 
fore-neck and chest alone retaining some remains of rufous 
shading and dusky bars. I he eyebrows are whitish and more 
distinct. If this bird was going to moult into the grey 
plumage before its return to Europe, the change must be very 
rapidly performed. 
Nestling. — “ Shiny black, iviih a yellowish bill and legs of a 
greenish slate-colour ” ( IV. C. Tait). 
Characters.— In the foregoing species the axillaries are 
barred with white. In Baillon’s Crake they are uniform. 
The back is freckled and spotted with white, as are the wing- 
coverts in a less degree. The ear-coverts are bluish-grey or 
ashy. 
Range in Great Britain.— A visitor in spring and autumn, 
principally to our southern counties, though it has been 
captured in Derbyshire and Yorkshire. It has also occurred 
