284 BIRD LIFE GLIMPSES 



minutes, but which is, more probably, several seconds. 

 Then, at length, with violent strugglings, they get 

 loose, and either instantly grapple again, or, as is 

 more usual, float about with the same proud display 

 as before, each seeming to breathe out menace for 

 the future, with present indignation at what has 

 just taken place. 



Moorhens fight in just the same manner as coots, 

 and seeing what a very curious and uncommon- 

 looking manner this is, it might be thought that 

 it was specially adapted to the aquatic habits of 

 the two species. It is not. It is related to their 

 terrestrial ancestry, and the terrestrial portion of 

 their own lives. One has only to see them fighting 

 on land to become, at once, aware that they are 

 doing so in exactly the same way as they do in the 

 water, and, also, that this way, on land, is by no 

 means peculiar, but very much that in which cocks, 

 pheasants, partridges, and, indeed, most birds, fight. 

 For, jumping up against one another, moorhens, like 

 these, strike down with the feet, but, having no 

 spurs, use their long claws and toes in the way most 

 natural to them. And this, no doubt, their fathers 

 did before them, in deeper and deeper water, as 

 from land-rails they passed into water-rails, until, 

 at last, they were doing it when bottom was not to 

 be touched, and they had only water to leap up 

 from. Even the falling back with the claws inter- 

 locked has nothing specially aquatic in it. I have 

 seen moorhens do so in the meadows, and they then 

 spread out their wings, to support themselves on the 

 ground, just as they do in the water. The con- 

 tinual leaping up from the water, as from the 



