MOOR-HEN. 31 



distant bank, leaving an evanescent track along the water, 

 like that occasioned by a stone which has been skilfully 

 thrown to make ducks and drakes. The nest contained seven 

 eggs, warm as a toast. The situation was a very odd one for 

 a Moor-hen's nest ; but there was a reason for it : the rising 

 of the water in the pond frequently flooded the banks of the 

 island, and, as I had before witnessed, had destroyed several 

 broods by immersion." 



The following notice is from the pen of Mr. Waterton : — 

 " In 1826 I was helping a man to stub some large willows 

 near the water''s edge. There was a Water-hen's nest at the 

 root of one of them. It had seven eggs in it. I broke two 

 of them, and saw that they contained embryo chicks. The 

 labourer took up part of the nest, with the remaining five 

 eggs in it, and placed it on the ground about three yards 

 from the spot where we had found it. We continued in the 

 same place for some hours afterwards, working at the willows. 

 In the evening, when we went away, the old Water-hen came 

 back to the nest. Having no more occasion for the labourer 

 in that place, I took the boat myself the next morning, and 

 saw the Water-hen sitting on the nest. On approaching the 

 place, I observed that she had collected a considerable quan- 

 tity of grass and weeds, and that she had put them all around 

 the nest. A week after this I went to watch her, and saw 

 she had hatched ; and, as I drew nearer to her, she went into 

 the water with the five little ones along with her." An in- 

 teresting account of Moor-hens moving their eggs to make 

 an addition to their nest, is thus related by Mr, Selby, in the 

 printed Proceedings of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club : — 

 "During the early part of the summer of 1835, a pair of 

 Water-hens built their nest by the margin of the ornamental 

 pond at Bell's Hill, a piece of water of considerable extent, 

 and ordinarily fed by a spring from the height above, but 

 into which the contents of another large pond can occasion- 



