20Ô BAILLON'S CRAKE.
valleys in the lower ranges of the Himalayas containing suitable
rice swamps or marshy pools. It is pretty common near
Syree, below Simla.
The full number of eggs is, I believe, eight, as we found
the fragments of this number of shells round a nest that had
hatched off. Six is the greatest number of eggs that I have
yet obtained, but then I have only seen two nests with eggs.
The nest is made of rush and weed, completely concealed in
water-grass, wild rush, and the like, and is not unfrequently
placed well above the water level. At the Achalda Jhi'l, Zilla
Etawah, Mr. Brooks and I took a nest of this bird containing
three fresh eggs on August 16th, 1867. The nest was of rush
and weed, in the midst of grass and wild rice, very little above
the water's surface. The eggs were oval, rather glossy, of a
pale olive brown, thickly mottled and blurred with specks,
spots, and blotches (most numerous at the large ends) of a
darker shade of olive brown and of a sort of purplish brown.
At Syrce, below Simla, at an elevation of about 4,000 feet,
I found a precisely similar nest in amongst dense rushes and
sedges on the margin of a small swampy pond encircicd by rice
fields. This was on the 19th June. This nest contained six
dccply-set eggs. Next year in July we found no less than three
similar nests in the same place, all unfortunately just hatched off.
Captain Butler writes :—•" Six eggs of this species were brought
to me on 17th September this year (1876) at Milana, 18 miles
east of Dccsa. They were taken by one of my own nest-seekers
in a small clump of bulrushes growing out in a tank ; and the
nest which he pointed out to me the following day was built in
the rushes about three or four feet above the water, and looked for
all the world like a miniature nest of the Common Water-Hen,
being composed of the same material (sedge and rush) and
constructed in exactly the same manner. The eggs, in size and
shape, arc much like Rain Quail's eggs, and in colour even are not
very different." Hodgson says :—" Almost a permanent resident
in the hills and breeds in the rice fields, making a very ingenious
nest raised on a sort of platform of twisted rice stalks. It is
always found in the crops in spring and autumn,* and wherever
there is a crop standing."
The egg is oval, slightly pointed towards one end ; the shell
of a firm and compact texture, and with a slight gloss. The
ground colour is a sort of a pale olive stone colour or very slightly
greenish drab, thickly freckled and mottled with faint dusky
clouds and streaks, which, in all the eggs that I have seen, were
most densely set towards the large end.. The dusky markings
in some eggs are a sort of pale sepia, but in others have a distinctly
purplish tinge. They appear, however, to be at all times
* Dr. Scully tells me he only observed it in Nepal from July to November, never
during the hist hall of the year.
BAILLON'S CRAKE. 207
dull, inconspicuous and ill-defined. The eggs vary in length
from VI to I"22, and in breadth from 0^83 to 091.
THE SEXES do not differ appreciably in size, though the dimensions
of individuals of each sex vary somewhat.
Length, 662 to 775 ; expanse, io'o to 1175 ; wing, 3'i2 to
37 ; tail from vent, 175 to 2'2 ; tarsus, ro$ to I'SS ; bill from
gape, 0'68 to 078 ; weight, r i to i'8 ozs.
The hides are normally red, brick red, crimson, carmine ;
but in some, probably younger birds, they are orange red and
reddish brown, and I have three specimens in which they were
recorded as light brown. The legs and feet are green, with a
yellowish tinge, some might be called brownish olive, some
merely dull green or pale olive green ; claws pale brown ; the
bill is green, dusky on culmen and at tips.
Tire PLATE is not altogether satisfactory. In the first place,
the legs and feet are, as already mentioned, green, and not pink,
as shown in the plate; in the second place, for nine specimens
out of ten, the barring on the sides and flanks is too
regular and pronounced, and there is rather too much of it ; in
the third place, the pure white speckling and smearing on the
back, scapulars and tcrtiarics, is omitted (!)
I may add that, though some females are very like the one
figured,* old females become very like the males, except that
they remain paler on the lower surface and have the grey on
the breast more or less intermingled with pale buffy brown.
This species and the Little Crake are so much alike that it
may be well to point out how they may be distinguished.
Baillon's Crake may be recognized by its smaller size, shorter,
and in proportion, deeper bill, and by having the back, scapulars,
and greater wing-coverts, all, more or less, profusely
variegated with a somewhat bluish white ; whereas in the Little
Crake the corresponding markings, which are rather coarser
and of a purer white, are confined as a rule to the centre of the
back, though occasionally there is a trace of these on some
of the longer scapulars. In Baillon's Crake the outer web of
the first primary is nearly entirely white or yellowish white. In
the Little Crake it is brown, only slightly paler and yellower
than the inner web. Moreover, in the Little Crake there is much
less barring on the flanks and under tail-coverts. Again, though
possibly this is only seasonal (on this point I cannot speak with
certainty), the Little Crake has the base of the bill bright red.
Lastly, the adult females of the Little Crake have the entire
breast and upper abdomen uniform fulvous fawn, while those of
Baillon's Crake have these parts an albescent grey, often only
very slightly intermingled or fringed on the breast with brownish
fawn.
* The right hand figure in the plate.