CHAPTER LXXXI 



THE WATERMEN 



The waterhen is a fighter — the chief fighting water-bird ; 

 his very crr-o-ook — crr-o-ook is a challenge, his cry being 

 wild and characteristic of the lagoons. In the middle of 

 March, the chequered month, the cocks begin to fight for their 

 mates, calling crr-oo-k, and nodding their heads at each other 

 till their passion rises, when they fl\' at each other, lying 

 back in the water and fighting with beak and sharp steel- 

 like claws like game-cocks — such a splashing and commo- 

 tion they make by the gladen and reed-beds — till their little 

 differences are settled, when the victors go off" with the hens, 

 never having slain each other, however. 



After they have paired, they begin to build their nests 

 towards the end of April, and always on the water ; for the 

 waterhen, like the otter, loves to have the water near at hand 

 to slip into, and, by diving, escape when an enemy approaches. 

 These birds choose all sorts of places for their nests, but 

 chiefly broken-down gladen and reed round the mere-side ; 

 more rarely they build in chate or soft rush on a wet marsh. 

 The nest is a bulky structure, made of dead gladen, or reed, 

 or sedge, or rush, according to the stuff" surrounding it, and 

 is so placed that, if the water rises, the bird can raise its nest 

 — but how this piece of engineering is effected I know not, 

 but do know that the}^ raise their nests if the water rise too 

 high. The most beautiful nest I ever saw was on a flooded 

 marsh, placed in a tussock of sedge, the green sedge braided 

 all around, forming a green bower exquisite in its dainty 

 beauty — a bower hiding the eggs from the prying gaze of 



