i()4 JJ'liifc-hrcastcd Waicrhcn. 



However, once in a wliile, even in aviculture, one gets 

 an agreeable siuprise to make up for the many disappointments, 

 and when I was in the aviary shortly after my return from 

 al road at the end of June, I noticed a small black bird darting 

 into the rushes. For a moment I could not imagine what it 

 could be, but after remaining perfectly still for some quarter of 

 a;i hour, -I saw a little black head pee])ing out of the rushes, 

 and realised that I had got a little moorhen at last. 



From its size I judged it to be about a month old. As 

 far as I could see it was jet black, including its legs and beak. 

 By taking cover in a neighbouring aviary I found that there 

 were at least two chicks. They were extremely shy, and only 

 came out of the thick rushes very occasionally, the parents 

 taking the food — bread and milk, and biscuit meal — to them. 

 The old birds consume a large quantity of seed, but as I did 

 not see how they could carry this to the little ones, I began 

 to scatter this twice daily on the edge of the pond, and very 

 soon I found that fhe young ones were picking it u]). 



I had every hope of raising them, l)ut about this time 

 i had an invasion of rats, and a Califoi nian Quail in the same 

 aviary lost twelve young ones from this cause. A skilled 



ratcatcher was engaged, but, before he bagged any rats, he 

 caught one of the adult moorhens by the leg. which had to be 

 amputated, and the bird, rather to my astonishment, died from 

 the shock. I was afraid at first that it might be the hen, and 

 that the young ones which were still being fed by her would 

 suffer, but luckily this was not the case. However, shortly 

 after this I had a stroke of bad luck, picking up one of the 

 young ones dead. It was about half grown and just beginning 

 to show the white breast. The survivor, which was the 



smaller bird of the two, continued to grow, although it could 

 only be seen by patiently watching from a place of conceal- 

 iTient. Tt now began to eat quite a lot of seed, preferring 

 tl'iis apparently to the soft food ; it was quite independent of 

 i's mother. Its breast now began to show considerable white, 

 although I think not so much as oiu" own moorhen chicks do 

 :'t the same age. 



At the time of writing it is practicall\- full grown, but 

 '- very much darker in the white parts than its parents. These 



