GALLINULES. 219 



waters, about rivers and pools, in wet and inundated districts ; they 

 also take to the water habitually, and swim with ease, in a singular 

 flirting manner, continually striking the water with their tails : 

 when approached and alarmed, they have recourse to diving, at such 

 times using their wings as fins, but never feed in this manner. The 

 Water Hens are sedentary, no less from the incapacity of their 

 short wings for undertaking migrations, than from original dis- 

 position, they are therefore found to inhabit warm and temperate 

 climates, in which they can obtain a constant supply of their varied 

 food. Bred sometimes in elevated inland districts, the old and young, 

 merely in quest of food and shelter, move occasionally into the 

 sheltered plains and marshes, and perform their migrations by night. 

 Like the Rails, they depend much more on the use of their legs 

 than wings, running with rapidity through covert and entangled 

 herbage, in which they are assisted by the compressed form of their 

 bodies allowing them to pass through the narrowest openings, and 

 sometimes, rather than trust to the tardy progress of swimming, 

 they skip over considerable sheets of still water on the yielding sur- 

 face of aquatic foliage. They are naturally restless, and, when run- 

 ning, always in the advancing posture of extreme haste, they elevate 

 the tail. They feed on small fish, insects and vegetables, and sel- 

 dom leave the pool or still river while it continues to afford them 

 food, and are particularly attached to such, whose shady and sedgy 

 borders nourish a supply of their usual fare. They are very prolific, 

 and yet from the various destructive accidents to which they are 

 exposed, are by no means a numerous race ; they lay two or 

 three times in the year, at first as many as 10, the latter broods, how- 

 ever, consist usually of only about 5 or 6 eggs ; these are usually 

 olivaceous, with rufous spots. The nest is made of rushes, flags, or 

 other coarse herbage, brought together in considerable quantities, and 

 placed near the surface of the water, on some branch, bush or stump ; 

 the hen is said to cover the eggs with herbage on leaving them, to 

 feed ; she sits about three weeks, and the young, at first covered with 

 black down, run and swim as soon as hatched, but remain for some 

 time under the careful guidance and protection of the mother, and 

 axe so well concealed that it is rarely possible to surprise them ; for 

 some time after birth the parent conducts them to and from the nest, 

 where she broods and defends them with all the care of a domestic 

 hen. But the very element, on which instinct so strongly leads 

 them to rely, and in which they are usually so secure, not unfre- 

 quently proves their destruction, as their eggs, placed so near the 



