MOOR-HEN. 



38 



and tliey produce two, if not three broods in a season, 

 the first of which is generally hatched by the end of May. 

 J. M. Boultbee, Esq., in a letter to the Rev. W. T. Bree-, 

 says, " At the bottom of the walk between the house and our 

 garden, in winter, runs a brook, but in summer there is only 

 still water, which is inhabited by Water-hens, &c. The 

 Water-hens have become quite tame, from persons constantly 

 passing and repassing. This year, 383S, in the spring, a 

 pair of them hatched some young ones ; and, as soon as they 

 were feathered, made another nest and hatched some more. 

 The young ones of the second hatch left the old birds, and 

 have been adopted by the young ones of the first hatch, who 

 have each taken one, and seem to take as much care of them 

 as the old ones could have done : they feed them, and never 

 leave them. Only one young one has remained with the old 

 hen.'"' The authors of the Catalogue of Norfolk and Suffolk 

 Birds say, that two young Moor-hens, which were hatched 

 under a Hen, used to take their food from the bill of their 

 foster-mother ; and It was not till they were several weeks old 

 that they would pick their food from the ground. We have, 

 notwithstanding, observed this bird in its natural state, when 

 it had only been hatched a few days, running about upon the 

 tops of the weeds and picking insects from them. Pennant 

 says Moor-hens might possibly be domesticated, for a pair in 

 his grounds never failed appearing when he called his dvicks 

 to feed, and partook before him of the corn. Among the 

 many aquatic birds with which the Ornithological Society 

 have stocked the canal and the islands in St. James"'s Park, 

 are several Moor-hens : in the course of the present summer, 

 1841, two broods have been produced, the young of which 

 are so tame, that they leave the water and come up close to 

 your feet on the path to receive crumbs of bread. In winter, 

 during hard frost, when ponds are frozen over, Moor-hens 

 resort to running streams, and harbour in plantations, hedgc- 



VOL. III. D 



