MOOR-HEN,—WATER-HEN. 417 
I quite agree with Mr. Atkinson that the water-hen, 
unlike the dobchick, more usually seeks safety in flight 
than by diving, but both methods are adopted under 
different circumstances. If suddenly surprised on her 
nest, the hen bird takes to flight, but if aware in time 
of some approaching danger, she invariably, I believe, 
dives-from her nest as the course least likely to draw 
attention to the spot; and the eggs will then in all proba- 
bility be found covered, a precaution more particularly 
adopted in exposed situations. So quietly is her exit 
made that a slight bead on the surface alone indicates her 
course under water, and till all danger has passed she 
shelters amongst the adjoining herbage, with probably 
only the tip of the beak out of water. This “state or 
posture of submergence,” as Mr. Atkinson calls it, is a 
marked characteristic of this species, and one which 
enables it to escape observation in spots where no other 
means of concealment exist. In wide open drains, for 
instance, the appearance of a slight bead on the water 
as one approaches the bank, raises a suspicion of either 
a water-hen or rat, and a dog well accustomed to the 
sport, will readily discover the bird’s hiding place, by 
scenting it from above, or swimming close under the 
bank, thus compelling it, however reluctantly, to take 
wing. The water-hen till then, holding on with its feet 
to the weeds under water, has probably protruded only a 
portion of its beak in some crevice of the bank, and 
though breathing with difficulty, would thus in most 
cases escape observation. In clear water, I have more 
than once detected a bird in the act of hiding in this 
manner, and have taken weeds from the clenched feet 
of one shot under such circumstances. When shooting 
at Keswick, near Norwich, where these birds are very 
plentiful in the small carrs and osier grounds by the 
river, I have watched their habits with no little interest. 
Frequently when taking a stand at the further end of 
3H 
