RAVENS, CURLEWS, AND EIDER-DUCKS 157 



stood, and all at once a strange object passed right 

 in front of me, swimming beneath the surface. It 

 was a moor-hen, but the wings used in the way I 

 have been discussing — a thing to me quite un- 

 expected — seemed to give it an entirely unbirdlike 

 appearance, and surprised me into thinking for the 

 moment that it was some kind of turtle. The legs, 

 I believe, were also used, alternately in a kind of 

 long, gliding stride, and may just have touched the 

 mud at the bottom. This, however — and I believe 

 the moor-hen often walks in this way along the bottom 

 rather than swims — would seem to make its use of 

 the wings at the same time all the more unlikely. 

 I have but my memory, which, as evidence after so 

 many years, is of little value. In all such matters 

 what is wanted is a note taken down at the time. 

 As to the actual dive down of the moor-hen, when- 

 ever I have seen it it has always been a sudden duck, 

 sometimes in a rather splashy and disordered manner, 

 but whether the wings were ever thrown partly open 

 I am not able to say. I have noted cases, however, 

 where they certainly were not, and this again makes 

 it more likely that the moor-hen in diving does not 

 use the wings at all. I do not know that I have 

 ever seen the moor-hen dive, unless it was in alarm 

 from having seen me ; and with regard to this a 

 question arises which, I think, is of interest — to what 

 extent, namely, does diving enter into the moor-hen's 

 ordinary habits, how often does it do so of its own 

 free will? Possibly it may differ as to this in dif- 

 ferent localities. Jefferies, for instance, writes as 

 though it were always diving. Yet I have watched 

 moor-hens latterly, at all seasons, and for several hours 



