184 RAULLIDAG 
leaves, small sticks, and even bits of paper: such nests 
I have examined on ornamental ponds. Well ambushed, 
and with the aid of a field-glass, I have watched Water- 
hens quit and return to their nest both before and after 
the young were hatched, and though I have seen them 
pluck the green leaves off trees and carry them to their 
nests, I have not as yet detected them covering either 
eggs or nestlings with such follage. As far as I could 
observe the leaves were used to replace part of the lining 
of the nest, which in wet situations soon becomes sodden 
and uncomfortable from decomposition of the subjacent 
foundation. The eggs, seven to nine in number, are hght 
buff, shading to warmer stone-colour, spotted with reddish- 
brown. ) 
Incubation sometimes begins as early as the end of 
March, and during the breeding-season several broods are 
brought forth! 
Geographical distribution.—Abroad, this species breeds 
throughout the greater part of Europe, except in the higher 
northern countries, also over the Asiatic and North African 
Continents and adjacent Islands. 
DESCRIPTIVE CHARACTERS. 
PLUMAGE. Adult male nuptial—Head, neck, and breast, 
dark greyish-black; abdomen, lighter grey; a few large 
white streaks on the flanks; back and wings, dark olive- 
brown; middle under tail-coverts, black; rest of under 
tail-coverts, white. 
Adult female nuptial.—Similar to the male plumage, but 
the white streaks on the flanks are narrower. 
Adult winter, male and female.—Similar to the nuptial 
plumage. 
Immature, male and female.—Back and wings, greyish- 
brown ; breast and abdomen, ash-grey ; throat, whitish. 
‘On the ornamental waters of Weston Park, Sheftield, a Water-hen 
hatched out a brood as late as the last week in August, 1904. The nest 
was built on a clump of holly branches secured in the middle of the pond. 
It was most interesting to watch how, in the absence of the parents, 
one of the fully-fledged immature birds of an earlier brood would enter 
the nest and view with tender curiosity its baby brothers and sisters. 
Sometimes this bird would quit the nest before the return of one or both 
parents, but even when it remained there its presence was never objected 
to. In fact, at one time, I noted a united family consisting of both 
parents, a fully-grown immature bird and a brood of nestlings in the 
nest and two other immature birds swimming round it. 
