sometimes among stumps, roots, or long grass; on a bank at
the edge of the water ; and the bird has benh ' known t6 fix
its nèst on a branch of a tree which rested upon the’ surface
of deep still .waterï The editor pf; the Naturalist mentions
an instance whe r e t he nest- of a Moor hen floated' on the
water without having any attachmént. whatever- with, the islet:
which it adjoined;, but was enclosed-on all- sides by sticks,- &e;
Thus situated, the careful parents' hatched their eggs in pen?-
feet safety ; though, had the water risen to an Unusual height,
the casfe might have been otherwise.” '
Rusticis. of JG-odidming, in the£ififth volume' of l||fe Maga%
zine of Natural: History, says, ‘^ ^ ^ j i f e c e of water called
Old Pond, .about-oha milerfrom Godaiming, on the London
road, is a most attractive spot to waterfowl ; and. an island in
its centre is-the resort o f some of them in thd bréediîïff-sear
son; and also a variety of other, birds, which find. i f ‘a safe and
unmolested place for the same-purpose.- I :haver;often delighted;
inj years , that: are-gone; to visit eÆî&-’island and. .its;
inmates--: the owner, Robert Moline, EstfwugfidrUo dlbw-us
frèer-iingress to all and every part of rtjhi estate ; ~ajjiteity anyone
with an incipient thirst for a knowledgerOf natural h i s tory
iwquld&beusure to avail- himself ofU One* day having
-pushed off from the shore, and. moored the little 'slullup'io
some of.thë-oslemwhich tSurrouhded the. island, Hbegan imy
accustomed examination. Thé-.first-object that attracted my
attention was a lot of dry rushes, flags, reeds; “&C-, enough fto
fill a couple of bushel baskets. This-mass was lodged about
twenty feet from the :ground, in a spruce^fir tree, and looked
for all the world as if it had been pitched there-with :a hayfork.
I mounted instantly, thinking of herons, reagles, and
a variety of other wonders||§§ust ;as my head .reached the
•nest, dap, flap, out came a Moon-hen; and, dropping to the
water, made off .in a direct line along its surface,: dip, - dip,
dip, dipping with lits >to®^: âhd."Was s|« te in the srasfeeskof a
distant bank, leaving an evanescent track along the water,
like that occasioned by a stone which has been skilfully
thrown to make ducks and' drakes. The nest contained sevén
offers, warm as a toast. The situation was a very odd one for
a Moor-hen’s,<mest ; but there tvas a .reason for i t : the rising
'of .the water in .the pond frequently flooded the banks of the
island, and, as I had beforej witnessed, had destroyed several
rbrbods by imm ersion.”
. -The following notice is from the pen of Mr. Waterton :—
In M f f was helping a man toi. stub some large willows
near the water’s edge.- T&rft was a Water-hen’s nest at the
root of one|@.f them. I t had seven eggs in it. I broke two
Of them; and saw that th ey contained embryo chicks. The
labourer took up part of;'the nest; with the remaining five
%ggs"i® it, and placed it J on thé ground about three yards
-fromth é -spot where we had-^found ifa.“ We continued in the
same,;place for some hours afterwards, Working at the willows.
Irethe evening, when we went away, th é ’old Water-hen came
Jback.to ih^nflpfe Having noiuote occasion for the labourer
in "that placed I took the? boat myself the next morning, and
saw the Water-hen sitting on the-nest. On approaching the
place, I "observed that she-had. collected a considerable quant
i ty of grass and- weeds, and that she had put them all around
,4hfsWhes1^* A weésk&'altet. this- I went to watch fifty and saw
shëthad- hatched ; and, as I drew nearer to her, she went‘into
’the wrfter with the five .little ones along with her.” An interesting
account-, of Moor-hens moving their ’eggs to make
an addition to their nest, thus related by Mr. Selby, in the
Sprinted Proceedings of the Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club
“ During the early part of the11'summer of-1835, a pair of
Water-hen^ built their nest by the margin of the ornamental
pondfit Bell’s Hill, a piece;of water of!considerable extent;
and ordinarily fed by a spring from the height above, but
into which the ~con tents ’ of ’ another large pond can occasion