RALLID^.. 



;o.-:; 







THE MOOR-HEN. 



CjAllixula chloropus (Linna.'us). 



This familiar species, also known as the Water-hen, is generally dis- 

 tributed throughout the British Islands, and is, as a rule, stationary ; 

 though a partial migration takes place in winter from the northern 

 districts where the cold weather is severe and continuous. Other- 

 wise the Moor-hen manages to exist very well during frosts, resorting 

 to running streams when ponds are frozen over, and finding shelter 

 in plantations, hedge-rows and thick bushes. Its trivial name had 

 its origin at the time when 'moor' was equivalent to mire or 

 ' marsh.' 



The Moor-hen is an irregular visitor to the Fteroes, and only 

 breeds sparingly in Scandinavia up to lat. 6y, while in Russia it 

 seldom nests as far north as St. Petersburg. Throughout the rest of 

 Europe it is more or less common in suitable localities ; and it is 

 sedentary in the Canaries, Madeira and the Azores, as well as in 

 Africa north of the Sahara ; its numbers in the last being reinforced 

 by migrants from the north in winter. Southward it can be traced 

 along both sides of that continent to Cape Colony ; but a remark- 

 able island-species, G. uesio/is, is found in the Tristan dWcunha 

 group, and a separable form, G. pyrrhorrhoa, inhabits Madagascar, 

 though our bird occurs in Reunion and the Seychelles. From 

 Ceylon and the Philiiipincs northward it is resident in Asia up to 

 the main island of Japan, and breeds as far north as Lake Baikal in 



