African Crake

SCI Name:  Crex egregia
Protonym:  Ortygometra (Crex) egregia Ber.K.Preuss.Akad.Wiss.Berlin p.134
Taxonomy:  Gruiformes / Rallidae / Crex
Taxonomy Code:  afrcra1
Type Locality:  Tete, Zambesi.
Author:  Peters, W
Publish Year:  1854
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

CREX
(Rallidae; Ϯ Corncrake C. crex) Specific name Rallus crex Linnaeus, 1758; "LIIII. Gattung: Knarrer. Crex.   Schnabel: Kurz, an den Seiten zusammengedrückt, fast bis an die Spitze gleich breit.  Nasenlöcher: Länglich, in der Mitte des Schnabels.  Füße: Mit mittelmäßig langen getrennten Zehen.  Leib: Zusammengedrückt.   Diese Gattung hält das Mittel zwischen der vorhergehenden [Rallus] und nachfolgenden [Gallinula] in Lebensart, Schnabel und Fußform.   * 1. Wiesenknarrer (Wachtelkönig: C. pratensis, mihi)  ...  Rallus Crex, Linné." (Bechstein 1803); "Crex Bechstein, Orn. Taschenb. Deutschl, Th. 2, 1803, p. 336. Type, by monotypy and tautonymy, Crex pratensis Bechstein = Rallus crex Linné." (Peters, 1934, II, p. 181). In former days the rasping call of the Corncrake was commonly heard in Britain, but its numbers and distribution have dramatically shrunk due to changed farming practices and loss of habitat.
Synon. Crecopsis, Ortygometra.

crex
● Gr. κρεξ krex, κρεκος krekos  noisy braggart (subsp. Cincloramphus timoriensis).
● Gr. κρεξ krex, κρεκος krekos  long-legged bird mentioned by Herodotus, Aristophanes, Aristotle, and other authors, since identified with a wide variety of birds, including the Corncrake (on the assumption that the name is onomatopoeic, as indicated by Linnaeus); "83. RALLUS.  ...  Crex.  1. R. alis rufo-ferrugineis.  Ortygometra alis rufo-ferrugineis. Fn. svec. 162.  Ortygometra. Aldr. orn. l. 13. c. 23. Will. orn. 522. t. 29. Raj. av. 58. Alb. av. I. p. 30. t. 32.  Habitat in Europæ agris, carectis; victitat Lumbricis.  Corpus valde compressum; vesperi & nocte sonorus voce ingeminata crex." (Linnaeus 1758) (Crex).

egregia
L. egregius  admirable, extraordinary, excellent  < ex  out of; grex, gregis  herd (cf. “without flocking (in this sense [Crecopsis], probably ‘solitary’ ” (Hockey et al. 2005)).