554 GALLINULA CHLOROPUS. 



lake, the glassy pool, and the flowing river, even down to its 

 estuary, where its waters mingle with the mighty ocean, or 

 high up at its rise, where it wells and ripples from the foot 

 of the heath-clad hill or lichen-crowned rock. Rather 

 domestic in its habits for a free denizen of nature, this bird 

 becomes easy of approach where its species is protected and 

 its haunts undisturbed. We may then find it feeding in 

 company with the domestic Duck, and sometimes even with 

 poultry. It is rather an early breeder, setting about the 

 work of nidification towards the close of April or the begin- 

 ning of May, and has two if not three broods in the year. 

 Its nest is a rude structure, composed externally of rushes 

 and flags, and internally lined with fine grass or bents, and 

 may very generally be found placed on a hassock or osier 

 stump, or amongst the roots of reeds or carices, in the imme- 

 diate vicinity of water. But, although these spots are very 

 generally chosen by this bird for nestling in, yet I have 

 found its nest sometimes affixed to the stump or horizontal 

 bough of the white willow, about two or three feet from the 

 surface of a river or pool The eggs, from five to eight, are 

 dull white or yellowish, irregularly blotched with rust- 

 coloured spots. The period of incubation lasts about twenty- 

 one days, and the young soon follow their parents upon the 

 surface of the water, or sport among the aquatic plants, pur- 

 suing various kinds of insects, which no doubt constitute 

 almost their chief food. When they first come abroad, I 

 have observed that they are incapable of diving, and, in 

 their attempts to disappear under the water, when alarmed 

 by the sudden approach of a person, make a very grotesque 

 appearance, bobbing their heads up and down beneath the 

 surface, and exposing their hind parts, in the manner of 

 drowning puppies. This incapability of diving, which, per- 

 haps, may result from a yet imperfect state of the respiratory 

 organs, is not, however, of long continuance. The reason 

 why I think there are two broods yearly is, that I have 

 observed the young in this state late in August. 



" There are several circumstances which tend very mate- 

 rially to prevent the increase of the species, which otherwise 

 would become very abundant. As it almost invariably nestles 



