2332 THE MOOR-HEN 
considerable time from the spot where he observed it, when he 
looks again it will have disappeared, taken wing, he may imagine, 
for some distant part of the water. Not so; the cunning bird, 
as soon as a Stranger was perceived within a dangerous proximity, 
steered quietly for the nearest tuft of reeds, among which it lies 
ensconced till he has passed on his way. Or it rose out of the 
water, and, with its feet trailing on the surface, made for a similar 
place of concealment ; or dived to the bottom, where it still re- 
mains clinging to the weeds. Perhaps it lies close to his feet, 
having sunk beneath the water, and, aided by feet and wings, 
rowed a subaqueous course to an often-tried thicket of rushes, 
where, holding on with its feet to the stems of submerged weeds, 
it remains perfectly still, leaving nothing above the surface of the 
water but the point of its beak. If the observer suspects the 
whereabouts of its concealment, he may beat the rushes with his 
stick and produce no effect ; the bird knows itself to be safe where 
it is and will make no foolish attempt to better itself. A water 
spaniel or Newfoundland dog will be more effective. Very often 
an animal of this kind is an overmatch for its sagacity, and seizes 
it in his mouth before the poor bird was aware that the water 
itself was to be invaded; but more frequently it discovers an 
onset of this nature in time to clear itself from its moorings, and 
dashing out with a splashing movement of feet and wings skims 
across the pond to another lurking-place, and defies further 
pursuit. 
The Gallinule, though an excellent swimmer and diver, belongs 
to the Waders; it has, consequently, free use of its legs on land, 
and here it is no less nimble than in the water. When induced to 
change the scene it steps ashore, and, with a peculiar jerking 
motion of its tail, showing the white feathers beneath, and very 
conspicuous by its bright red bill, which harmonizes pleasantly 
with the green grass, it struts about and picks up worms, insects, 
snails, or seeds, with unflagging perseverance, making no stay 
anywhere, and often running rapidly. If surprised on these 
occasions, it either makes for the water, or flies off in a line for 
some thick hedge or patch of brush-wood, from which it is very 
difficult to dislodge it. 
Its mode of life is pretty much the same all the year round; - 
it is not a traveller from choice. Only in severe weather, when 
its haunts are bound up with ice, it is perforce compelled to shift 
its quarters. It then travels by night and searches for unfrozen 
streams. At such times it appears occasionally in pretty large 
numbers in places where usually a few only resort. When the 
south of Europe is visited by severe frosts it is supposed even to 
cross the Mediterranean, it having been observed in Algeria, feeding 
in marshes in half-social parties, where a day or two before none 
had been seen. To the faculties of swimming and running it 
