BECENT COLONISTS 95 



friend had related such a thing to me I should 

 have been disposed to think that his sight had 

 deceived him. This moorhen was quietly feeding 

 on the margin, but became greatly excited on 

 the appearance, a little distance away, of a second 

 bird. Lowering its head, it made a little rush 

 at, or towards, the new comer, then stopped and 

 went quietly back ; then made a second little 

 charge, and again walked back. Finally it 

 began to walk backwards, with slow, measured 

 steps, towards the other bird, displaying, as it 

 advanced, or retrograded, its open white tail, at 

 the same time glancing over its shoulder as if to 

 observe the effect on its neighbour of this new 

 mode of motion. Whether this demonstration 

 meant anger, or love, or mere fun, I cannot say. 

 Instances of what Euskin has called the 

 moorhen's ' human domesticity of temper, with 

 curious fineness of sa,gacity and sympathies in 

 taste,' have been given by Bishop Stanley in his 

 book on birds. He relates that the young, 

 when able to fly, sometimes assist in rearing the 

 later broods, and even help the old birds to 

 make new nests. Of the bird's aesthetic taste 

 he has the following anecdote. A pair of very 

 tame moorhens that lived in the grounds of a 



