GREEN-FOOTED WATER-HEN. 553 



in remote and unfrequented places. In some of the rushy 

 lakes of the Island of Harris and North Uist, I have found it 

 easier to get within shooting distance than in the mill-dams 

 and streams of the lower districts of Scotland, where, should 

 it observe you, even at a great distance, it is sure to be off in- 

 stantly, and by the time you get to thefdace, it has concealed 

 itself. 



From the middle of April to the beginning of May, when 

 vegetation has made some progress, but in the northern and 

 more exposed parts of the country not until the middle of 

 that month, the Water-hen commences the construction of its 

 nest, which it places in the midst of a tuft of rushes or sedges, 

 or fixes among reeds, or builds on a sedgy spot close to the 

 water, or even sometimes on the trunk of a decayed or fallen 

 willow. It is bulky, and composed of blades of reeds, grasses, 

 fragments of decayed rushes or flags, and other aquatic plants. 

 The eggs, which sometimes amount to eight or even ten, vary 

 in form from regular ovate to nearly elliptical, and have a 

 pale, dull, brownish-grey, or greyish-yellow ground, with 

 irregularly dispersed spots and dots of a deep brown colour, 

 varying in size from the smallest perceptible by the human 

 eye, to a diameter of nearly a quarter of an inch. Their 

 average length is an inch and three quarters, their breadth 

 an inch and a quarter. The young, which are at first covered 

 with long, stiffish black down, leave the nest soon after they 

 are hatched, and follow their mother. The sight of a flock is 

 interesting, especially if you come suddenly upon it, for then 

 the young scatter about in all directions, dive and conceal 

 themselves, the old bird meanwhile lingering, and displaying 

 the greatest anxiety, until her brood is safe, when she, too, 

 dives, and is no more to be seen. 



To these observations of my own I have the pleasure of 

 adding the following, kindly supplied by Mr. Harley, of 

 Leicester : — " The Water-hen is a truly British bird, widely 

 distributed and generally well known. Although in many 

 parts of this island it bears the name of Moor-hen only, yet 

 that appellation is not strictly true, as we may find it far 

 away from the moor or marsh or sedgy swamp, the haunt of 

 the Bittern, Curlew, and Snipe, affecting alike the expanded 



