■mi 
YELLOW-BREASTED RAIL. 
137 
authors, whilst the name Crex, or rather Porzana, or Ortygometra, 
may be consecrated to the Short-billed Rails, improperly ranked 
by authors with the Gallinules. I say rather Porzana or Ortygo¬ 
metra, because the name Crex might be reserved for a secondary 
group, instituted for the Corn-crake alone, ( Rallus crex, L.) an 
European bird, whose dry-land habits, so different from those of 
its congeners, have, with apparent propriety, induced Bechstein 
and others to elevate it to the rank of a full genus. Its land 
habits are so peculiar, resembling more those of Gallinaceous 
birds than of Waders, that notwithstanding a perfect similarity 
of conformation, we do not hesitate to grant it the distinction 
of a section for itself, especially as we are at last, after a 
minute examination, able to assign it a character drawn from the 
respective proportions of the toes and tarsus. This is, however, 
the result of extraordinary pains. In the Land Crake of Europe, 
(and probably in a few analogous foreign species) the middle toe 
without the nail is shorter than the tarsus, whilst in the Water 
Crakes it is longer. The hind toe is also shorter and rather 
more elevated from the ground. All the other Rails and Crakes 
are, though much less aquatic than the Gallinules and Coots, 
always found in marshes, swamps, lakes, and their reedy margins, 
or in their vicinity, and they even swim occasionally, though not 
habitually. The Ortygometrse, or Crakes, are again subdivided by 
the modern English school into two groups, which they elevate to 
the dignity of genera, under the names of Crake and Craker, but 
to which they assign no character. At least Dr. Leach, the 
author of the genus Zapornia, did not, as far as I know, charac¬ 
terize the group, nor is my good friend at present able to 
point out the difference. However this may be, the only species 
referred to it is the European Pallus pusillus, whilst its close 
relative the porzana, and even the R. baillonii are left in Ortygo¬ 
metra with the Rallus crex, which with great inconsistency the 
VOL. iv .—m m 
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