278 BIRD LIFE GLIMPSES 



shorter intervals. When one sees this, one would 

 never doubt but that here is the special call-note of 

 the mother to the chicks. Nevertheless, I have 

 heard her thus clucking, whilst sitting on a first 

 brood of eggs, and this shows how careful one 

 ought to be in attributing a special and definite 

 significance to any cry uttered by an animal. 

 Besides the one which I have mentioned, young 

 moorhens make a little shrilly sound that has some- 

 thing, almost, of a cackle in it. There is also a little 

 " chillip, chillip " ; nor does this exhaust their 

 repertory. In fact they have considerable variety 

 of expression, even at this early age. They swim 

 as " to the manner born," nid-nodding like their 

 parents, but cannot progress against a stream that 

 is at all swift. One paddling with all its might, 

 neither advancing nor receding, and uttering, all the 

 while, its little querulous cry, is a common sight. 

 Up a steep bank they can climb with ease, and 

 they have a manner of leaning forward, when run- 

 ning, to an extent which makes them seem always 

 on the point of overbalancing, that is very funny to 

 see. For some time, they are accustomed to return 

 to the nest, after leaving it, and sit there with one 

 of the parent birds. When surprised, under these 

 circumstances, the mother (presumably), utters a 

 short, sharp, shrilly note, which is instantly fol- 

 lowed by another, equally short and much lower. 

 As she utters them she retreats, and the chicks, with 

 this warning, are left to themselves — to stay or to 

 follow her, as best they can. 



Having often disturbed birds under these or 

 similar conditions, I can say confidently that the 



