THE WATER RAIL. 465 



made it less shy than usual, or it had not learnt to fear a 

 horse and carriage, for it took no notice of the intrusion 

 on its privacy, but went on with its search without con • 

 descending to look up. The Water Eail, then, unlike the 

 Corn Crake, remains with us all the winter. When forced 

 to rise, this bird flies heavily straight forwards, at no 

 great elevation above the rushes, with its legs hanging 

 loose, and drops into the nearest thicket of weeds. A 

 nest and eggs of this bird are thus described in the 

 "Annals of Natural History": — "The bird had selected 

 for her nest a thick tuft of long grass, hollow at the 

 bottom, on the side of the reed pond ; the nest, about an 

 inch and a half thick, was composed of withered leaves 

 and rushes; it was so covered by the top of the grass, 

 that neither bird, nest, nor eggs could be seen; the 

 entrance to the nest was through an aperture of the grass, 

 directly into the reeds, opposite to where any one would 

 stand to see the nest." The number of eggs is about ten 

 or eleven. 



THE MOOE-HEX. 



GALLINULA CHLOROPUS. 



Upper plumage deep olive-brown ; under tail-coverts and edge of the wing 

 white, the former mth a few black feathers ; under plumage slate colour, the 

 flanks streaked with white ; base of the bill and a space on the forehead bright 

 orange, point of the bill yellow ; irides red ; feet olive-brown ; a red ring 

 round the tibia. In feviales the colours are brighter than In the males. 

 Young Mrds have the front of the neck whitish, the belly grey, the base of the 

 beak and legs olive-brown. Length thirteen inches. Eggs buff, spotted and 

 speckled with orange-brown. 



Of the two common names of this bird, " Moor-hen " and 

 " Water-hen," the former is that which is more generally 

 in use, though the latter is the piore appropriate. The 

 bird frequents moors, it must be admitted, but only such 

 as are watery ; while there is scarcely a river, lake, canal, 

 brook, or even pond, of moderate dimensions, which 

 Moor-hens do not either inhabit all the year round or 



H H 



