RALLIDA. A447 
the Moorhens, as wherever a pair have established 
themselves they will allow of no interference or 
close proximity, all intruders, even their own young 
of the year before, being driven off, and a sharp 
watch kept lest some wanderer should intrude within 
the forbidden limits. 
Although the Moorhens eventually drive off their 
young ones when they come to an age to shift for 
themselves, during their younger days they are most 
attentive parents, and show great pluck in their de- 
fence, attacking much larger birds as well as animals. 
In July, 1867, when fishing with a friend near here, 
I had an opportunity of witnessing a very curious 
display of pluck and sagacity exhibited by a pair of 
these birds in defence of their young against a stoat. 
As the fish were not in the right humour, I was 
sitting on some rails by the pond, when all of a 
sudden I heard a splash in the water and a loud 
alarm cry of the Moorhen. On looking round I saw 
the bird taking her brood as fast as possible to some 
thick rushes a little way out in the pond: the other 
old bird, probably the male, kept walking about on 
the mud and amongst the long grass and rushes on 
the bank the others had left: he was evidently ina 
state of great perturbation, walking carefully about 
and constantly uttering his alarm cry. One tuft of 
long grass seemed to have a special attraction for 
him, and he walked several times all round it, and 
once even he trod on it, when out jumped a stoat, 
2Q2 
