385 
1921 .] Birds of Lower Egypt. 
1916, a third on the old canal swamp near my quarters. 
During that winter, and throughout my stay in Egypt, I saw 
Crakes during each month of the year. (I shot a bird on 
19 April, 1917, whicli was wrongly identified as a Little 
Crake. It was in breeding condition. On 5 August, 1917, 
when comparing skin's in the Giza Museum, this bird proved 
to bo P. pusilla intermedia.) I searched diligently for a 
nest, and on 29 April succeeded in finding one containing 
six eggs, fifty per cent, incubated. These 1 took to belong 
to P. parva at the time, but subsequent comparison by the 
Rev. F. C. R. Jourdain with a large series, proves them to 
be, in all probability, P. p. intermedia. 
I could have made definitely certain, had I known at the 
time that any doubt existed, for, on 3 May in the same year, 
I caught two young Crakes alive in the same patch of reeds, 
and saw the parent birds creeping about several times, but 
refrained from destroying them. Efforts were made by the 
Giza Zoological Service to rear" these chicks, but were un¬ 
successful. 
I was never able to dear the matter up to my own satis¬ 
faction, but shot specimens of P. parva on 28 February and 
26 March, 1917, in the same locality as that in which I 
discovered the eggs and young, and on the old canal swamp 
on 28 December, 1918. In the latter place I saw young 
Crakes on 19 May, 1918, but was unable to obtain an adult. 
[At Inchas on 20. iv. 10 I shot a Crake, which Mr. Nicoll 
identified as P. parva , and I believe the skin is still in the 
Giza Museum. From the late date it ought to have been 
breeding, but I failed to find a nest.—R. S.] 
222. Gallinula chloropus. Moorhen. 
This species is a resident in suitable places, but is not very 
numerous at Abu Zabaal in the breeding-season. Its 
numbers are increased in the winter, at which season I often 
saw it. 
I found incubated eggs at Inchas on 17 May, 1916, and 
also on 12 May, 1917, in the same locality. On 29 Septem¬ 
ber, 1917, I shot a young bird, at Inchas, still unable to fly. 
