THE HYACINTHINE GALLINULE. 297 
graceful, and ornamental birds. During the day they secrete them- 
selves among the reeds, but emerge from their hiding-places in the 
evening and morning in search of food. 
Although incapable of either fast flight or rising to great ele- 
vations, the Water Hens show considerable address in escaping from 
the sportsman’s gun. When pressed very closely, they take to their 
favourite element, in which they are expert swimmers and divers; 
under the water they go, to reappear on the surface many yards 
away, where they only show themselves above for a moment to 
breathe, avoiding flight until every cause of fear is removed. 
In some countries they remain throughout the year; in others 
they are migratory. When the latter is the case, they travel on foot, 
or by swimming, and sometimes, but rarely, on the wing, following 
the same route, however, year after year, and always returning with 
constancy to the spot where they made their first nest. 
The eggs are seven or eight in number. During incubation the 
male and female occupy the nest alternately. Should any intruder 
alarm them, they never fail, before leaving the nest, to cover up 
their cherished treasures with grass or other material, so as to keep 
them warm and hidden from the voracity of their watchful enemy, 
the crow. 
Immediately after the young are hatched they leave the nest to 
follow their mother, and are very soon able to supply their own 
wants. ‘Their only covering at first is a scanty and coarse down ; 
but they run rapidly, and seem almost instinctively to swim, dive, 
and conceal themselves at the slightest appearance of danger. Young 
Water Hens, however, are exposed to accident from the flooding of 
streams, and consequent submersion of the nests ; and it is probably 
by way of compensation for this that Nature has made them so 
prolific, for they frequently rear three broods per annum. 
The Hyacinthine Gallinule (Porphyrio veterum, Fig. 112) or 
Sultana Fowl, is peculiarly characteristic of Macrodactyles, and might 
be defined as an exaggeration of the Water Hen. But its bill is 
thicker and more robust, the frontal plate on the forehead is more 
extended, the toes are longer ; the habits of both are identical. Its 
favourite food is the seeds of the cereals, aquatic plants, and fruits ; 
it occasionally, however, feeds on molluscs and small fishes. When 
eating, sometimes it stands on one foot, and uses the other as a hand 
in order to convey the food to its beak. 
The body of this magnificent bird is of an indigo blue, the beak 
and feet being rose-colour. The ancients, who were acquainted with 
it, and were accustomed to rear it in a domesticated state, gave it 
Eo 
