MOOR-HEN,—WATER-HEN. 413 
to the 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 
Gally, 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 
erain, 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 lid, 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 
meal. Extraordinary as this ingenious device may 
appear on the part of this water-hen, it is apparently 
not a solitary 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 
