lirood to the nest. A few dnys later, the two old birds, accompanied by their reduced family of three, were
encountered in the same marsh, though their quarters had been removed to a part where the soil was firmer.
Tho young had rapidly gained strength, running actively across the open and hiding themselves so securely
iu the cover, that without the assistance of a retriever there would have been but little chance of alighting on
their place of concealment. On the 7th of July, while quanting up one of the adjoining dykes, I again rami'
suddenly on tins small party, when the youngsters at once betook themselves to the water, swimming boldly
across a shallow pool, and, on making the shore, instantly disappearing iu the coarse herbage.
Though Waler-Rails remain in Ureal Britain throughout the winter in considerable numbers, it is obvious
that many arrive on the south coast dining spring from across the Channel. Along the shore near Rye and
Pcvcusey, and again, further west, about Urightuu and Shoreham, I occasionally fell in with these birds in the
coarse grass about the brackish pools near the const, or in the ditches intersecting the adjoining marshes.
Shortly after daybreak one morning in the spring of 1850, between twenty and thirty were put out frum the
beds of samphire and other salt-water weeds growing on the mud-Hats iu the Nook at Rye.
A Water-Rail that I kept in confinement would occasionally mount to some height among the branches
of tho shrubs and bushes in the garden, being able apparently to grasp strongly with its claws. After
remaining in captivity for a couple of years, it was at length killed by a combiaed attack of three Herring-
Gulls, who surrounded the poor little bird and pecked it to death before assistance could be rendered.
MO Oil II EN.
GALLINULA CllLOROPUS.
Tuts familiar species having been recognized within a short distauce of John o' Groats and also at the
Duck-pools near tho Land's End, we may naturally conclude that it is widely distributed over the British
Islands. To describe the various haunts to which the Moorhen resorts would prove an endless task; the
bird appears as contented on the smallest pool or the narrowest ditch as on the most extensive lake or loch
in the United Kingdom.
When unmolested this species IHI-OUIOS exceedingly fearless, scarcely quitting the roadside pond on the
approach or traffic, and feeding regularly with liouUry in tho farmyards, lit company with Coots they resort
in numbers to the water collected in the oxeavat ions adjoining the embankments of several lines of railway
regarding the passing trains with the greatest unconcern. In most situations those birds are In all probability
perfectly harmless, though tho game-preserver in charge of young Pheasants will do well to keep an eye on any
chance visitor that may approach his coops.
In some localities in the Highlands these birds gather in large niunltors round the moorland lochs,
breeding almost in colonies, so thickly are their nests placed in the more favourable situations where dense
cover aud waving bogs afford the necessary security for bringing out their young. The extensive reed-beds
surrounding the broads aud meres of the eastern counties also harbour countless Moorhens ; in many parts
the swamps to which they resort, as the only chains' of safety, ore utterly impassable to any one except u
native feutuan. Towards the end of April 1878, the water on lleighatn Sounds aud the adjoining broads
rose rapidly, owing to the high tides oaused by a continuation of strong westerly winds. The overflow
being sufficient to float a light punt through the bushes" and over many dangerous parts of the rondos, the
immense losses suffered by Coots, Moorhens, and Rails were easily ascertained, scores of nests with the full
complement of eggs being scon from three or four to half a dozen inches below the surface of the water.
Throughout the neighbourhood of the broads uud in marshy districts iu all parts of the country these
birds construct their coarse and roughly built nests among the flags, reeds, or sedge, employing solely
strands or rushes and other water-plants. When resorting to small ponds or streams in wooded localities,
they avail themselves of the shelter afforded by tho stitbhs and twining roots of the willow, abler, or hazel
overhanging the water. Though statements are rooordod by various authors to the effect that nests have
been observed in trees at an elevation of twenty feet, I have never noticed one at a greater height from the
ground than between three aud four feet. On one occasion I examined a most picturesque site for a cradle
that had been chosen at about tins height among the twisted limbs of an old and weather-beaten alder, thrown
down by the winter gales across the bed of a mountain burn iu a desolate Highland glen ; though the
gradually rutting slump exhibited no signs of foliage, the luxuriant fronds of endless spreading ferns
sprouting from the pent-mould on I he surrounding slabs of rock atl'orded ample concealment.