340 THE NESTS AND EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 

 Family RALLID.E. Genus Gallinula. 



W ATE R HEN. 



Gallinula chloropus {Linnmis). 

 Double Brooded. Laying season, March to July. 



British breeding area : The Waterhen is com- 

 monl\' and widely distributed throughout the British 

 Islands, even extending to such bare and wild localities 

 as the Outer Hebrides and the Orkneys, but not reaching 

 the Shetlands as a breeding species, only as a wanderer. 



Breeding habits : The Waterhen is a resident in 

 the British Islands, and for the most part sedentary, 

 unless driven out by long-continued frosts. It may be 

 found breeding on the banks of almost every description 

 of water, provided shelter of some kind is available ; 

 whilst in many places it lives almost in a state of semi- 

 domestication. We can scarcely class the Waterhen 

 as gregarious, but it is certainly to a great extent social 

 during the breeding season, numbers of nests often 

 being made within a small area, yet even then each 

 pair shows a strong disposition to resent encroachment 

 on its own particular ncst-haunt, though ready enough 

 to swim and feed in company with the rest. I am of 

 opinion that this bird pairs for life, and not onl}' keeps 

 to one haunt season by season, but often makes its nest 

 in one particular spot. The nest is placed in a great 

 variety of situations, perhaps most frequently among 

 flags, rushes, reeds, and ir's, often at some distance from 

 shore, in moderately shallow water. Sometimes it is 

 built amongst a mass of branches bent down into the 

 water, and is then entirely supported by the network 

 of twigs ; at others it is made amongst exposed roots, 

 on the banks of the water. More rarely a fir tree has 



