I
IMUlfft SHAKE
Porzana bailloni, Vieilht.
Vornaeular Names.-IJiriiii, Nepal. ]
AILLON'S Crake occurs, at one season or another,
in suitable localities in almost every portion of the
mainland of the Indian Empire, except in Tenasserim,
south of Tavoy, and in Sind. Even in Sind,
where the Little Crake is the common species, one
specimen was killed near the Manchur Lake by Mr.
Blanford,
The present species is also found in Ceylon and the Andamans.
Outside our limits, Baillon's Crake is found in Afghanistan
and Beluchistan, in Turkestan, and eastwards throughout China,
in Dauria, South-East Siberia and Japan*
We do not know of its occurrence (though stragglers will probably
turn up in some of these) in the Malay Peninsula, Siam,
Cochin China, the Nicobars, or any part of the Malay
Archipelago, except at Bintulu on the west coast of Borneo.
There seems to be no authentic record of it from Persia (though
it may occur there), Arabia, Asia Minor, 01 Palestine ; but it is
found throughout Southern and Central Europe (straggling
rarely to Great Britain), the Islands of the Mediterranean, and
in a great many localities in Africa from the north to the extreme
south, as also in Madeira and Madagascar.
To A great extent this species is a migrant in India, but it is
so retiring in its habits, and has as yet been so little watched
or attended to, that we are quite unable to give any satisfactory
details of its migration.
Certainly this species is, as a rule, more common in the
plains of India during the cold season than at any other period.
Certainly, also, it is rarely, if ever, met with in the Himalayas
(throughout which, from Kashmir to Sikhim, it is found
up to elevations of 6,000 feet or possibly somewhat more),
* Its occurrence in the Philippines rests on no sufficient authority.