MOOK-HEN, WATEE-HEN. 413 



to tlie ordinary habits of this species, but they seem 

 to content themselves almost entirely with the supply 

 distributed about in shallow pans for the pheasants. 

 In these coverts a few years back, a very remarkable 

 display of instinct, amounting almost to reasoning power, 

 on the part of a water-hen, was witnessed by John 

 Gaily, a gamekeeper on the estate, the particulars of 

 which, as related to me, I have no reason to question. 

 The pheasants are accustomed to feed from wooden 

 boxes, which, to prevent small birds from eating the 

 grain, are so constructed that the lid only opens by a 

 lever when a pheasant perches on the projecting rail in 

 front. The waterhen having observed the pheasant's 

 method of feeding also perched upon the rail, but found 

 its own weight insufficient to raise the Hd, and therefore, 

 after one or two unsuccessful attempts, went off" in 

 search of its mate, and, returning to the box, the weight 

 of the two together effected the desired purpose, and 

 enabled the sagacious bird to obtain its well-earned 

 m.eal. Extraordinary as this ingenious device may 

 appear on the part of this water-hen, it is apparently 

 not a sohtary instance, as an anecdote similar in almost 

 every particular with respect to the same species, is 

 recorded by the late Bishop Stanley in his "Familiar 

 History of Birds." It would seem, however, from the 

 following note in the " Zoologist " for 1854 (p. 4255), 

 by Mr. H. T. Partridge, that, although fond of appro- 

 priating the pheasants' food whenever opportunity 

 offers, the water-hen is not always impressed with 

 a proper sense of its obligations, either to the game- 

 keeper or the young pheasants : — " At the beginning 

 of last July, the keeper having lost several pheasants 

 about three weeks old, from the copse, and having set 

 traps in vain for winged and four-footed vermin, deter- 

 mined to keep watch for the aggressor, when, after 

 some time, a moorhen was seen walking about near 



