262 BIRDS, BEASTS, AND FISHES 



nest. They raise two broods in a year if left to them- 

 selves, but if robbed they will lay three or four clutches 

 of eggs, their eggs being found as late as July, when 

 there are often full-grown young birds of the year to be 

 seen. These young birds hang about the reed and gladen 

 all summer, venturing beyond the stuff now and then ; but 

 if disturbed, they go flapping, half-flying and running to 

 cover, whence their ca-aks may be heard on still nights for 

 a mile. 



When the autumn gales begin to break down the dying 

 reed and gladen, and the frost to lay it, they venture farther 

 out into the open lagoon, flocking together — sometimes 

 six or seven hundred collecting together. Experienced 

 gunners can tell them at a distance by their constant habit 

 of flying up into the air a little way and re-alighting on the 

 water. And experienced gunners do not harass them, for 

 they seem to attract fowl to the lagoons, and themselves 

 seem to be attracted by any wildfowl, for directly a bunch 

 of fowl alights they go drawing towards them. Should these 

 flocks be disturbed at one end of the broad, they'll fly over and 

 alight at the other end, so that they cannot be easily shot, 

 unless a number of guns go out, whose barrels they have to 

 fly across — that is, unless there be a strong breeze of wind. 

 Then they get blown towards the gunner, if he know where 

 to go ; for they are weak on the wing for their size, and 

 cannot beat against the wind like other fowl. The punt- 

 gunner gets a few shots at them as they rise, too, for they 

 are not strong enough to rise straight out of the water, 

 but must rise head to wind, and beat themselves up by 

 wings and feet before they get to the wind. They rise from 

 the land badly, too ; but in both cases, after they get fairly 

 on the wing, they turn down to leeward. The waterhen is 

 stronger on the wing than the coot, as may be seen by his 

 frequent rising from stuff, and his rising straighter up than 

 a coot. 



When the ice begins to form, they know whether it is 



