152 WILD-FOWL AND SEA-FOWL OF GREAT BRITAIN 



wading in the reeds and the swamps all the time 

 young Moorhens are about. They would be far 

 more numerous were they not hunted for so per- 

 sistently by furred, finned, and feathered prowlers. 



Deep holes are avoided as much as possible when 

 the brood is out, because pike are on the watch, and 

 they do not watch in vain. If the little birds keep 

 close to the side, in or on the shallows, great chub 

 rush out from their hovers under the bank, and take 

 them as a trout would a fly, for a chub of from three 

 to four pounds' weight is decidedly inclined to be 

 predaceous if he has the chance ; so that what with 

 one thing and another the poor little innocents have 

 a rough time. I think that if fishing-tackle makers 

 would fix up lures resembling the young of waders 

 and water-fowl, some waters would not hold so many 

 predaceous fish as they now do in bird-nesting time. 

 I have heard a great many complaints made about 

 the real or imaginary loss of birds where fancy 

 water-fowl are kept, yet when the means for very 

 easily capturing their persecutors were pointed out 

 and shown, they were never adopted. But this did 

 not concern me, as I never had to pay for the 

 mischief done. 



When the Moorhens nest close to houses or to 

 buildings used for farm purposes, they are compara- 

 tively safe, and they know it, and are quite satisfied 

 if they can have a very small pool or runnel. They 

 make themselves quite as contented on a little rush- 

 pond the size of a small room as if it were a lake of 

 great extent, and perhaps they feel it is safer for them. 



