Ornithological and Other Oddities 



itself. It says a great deal for the discretion 

 of the moorhen that it is able to maintain 

 itself in the cat-infested London area, for, as 

 any one may see in the summer, it is quite 

 incapable of flight in the moulting season, since 

 all the quills come out at once, as is the case 

 with ducks and some other marsh-loving birds. 



The dabchick attracts little attention in the 

 parks as compared with the moorhen, but it 

 exists there under less favourable conditions. 

 Being chiefly an animal feeder, it does not 

 benefit by the liberal dole of bread bestowed 

 by the public ; and, not being at all at home 

 out of the water, it cannot seek its living ashore, 

 and so has to migrate in winter to avoid the 

 risk of being frozen out. In other respects, 

 this merry, plucky little diver prospers well 

 enough and adapts himself to circumstances. 

 Years ago, Riley, the late bird-keeper at St. 

 James's Park, showed me a nest of the dab- 

 chick, for which newspaper had been employed, 

 instead of the natural material of water-weeds, 

 wet paper being just nice and soft enough to 

 suit a dabchick's ideas of what was correct in 

 upholstery. And, although not a beggar, the 

 dabchick has cultivated very friendly relations 

 with man. The " didapper peering through 

 the wave, which, being looked at, ducks as 



quickly in," seems not now to exist in the 



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