Volume 34, Plate XXX / Ornithology (Birds)

Spotted Crake

Crex porzanna

More aquatic than the corn crake and frequenting reedy marshes and lake borders, the Spotted Crake is a summer visitant whose skulking, callless habits make it seem rarer than it is, often running long before a dog rather than rising. Clear hair-brown above edged with oil-green and marked with white spots and bars, it has a white-spotted neck and breast, white-barred flanks, and an orange-red bill shading to yellow with a brown tip.