MOOR-HEN. 91 
be nearly dead, and was unable to stand. Some means Were 
resorted to in way of cherishing, in the hope of restoring 
animation, but all apparently to no purpose. As life however 
was not quite extinct, and with a view to give the bird a 
chance, it was placed among the flags on the margin of the 
river, when, to our surprise, it immediately roused itself up, 
and ran away into closer shelter as brisk as if nothing had 
happened to it. Are’we to suppose that in either or both 
these instances the Water-Hen feigned death for the sake of 
defence? In the latter instance it may possibly be urged 
that the bird had been so terrified as to have been almost 
frightened to death; but in the former, no further alarm had 
been given to the Water-Hen except what was occasioned by 
my having accidentally intruded upon its haunts.’ 
They feed severally in the morning or the evening, on the 
water or the land, on water-insects, larve, slugs, worms, 
grasshoppers, grain, small mollusks, seeds, grasses, water-cresses, 
and other plants, the latter being of especial service in hard 
weather, when they are frozen out from their other and 
ordinary sources; but even with this provision they appear 
weak and languid in very hard’ winters, whether from the 
severity of the cold, or the failure of a sufficient amount of 
their more proper food. H. T. Partridge, Esq., of Hockham 
Hall, near Thetford, Norfolk, relates the following curious 
fact in the ‘Zoologist,’ page 4255:—‘At the beginning of 
July, the keeper having lost several Pheasants about three 
weeks old, from a copse, and having set traps in vain for 
winged and four-footed vermin, determined to keep watch for 
the aggressor, when, after some time, a Moor-Hen was seen 
walking about near the copse; the keeper, supposing that it 
only came to eat the young Pheasants’ food, did not shoot 
it until he saw the Moor-Hen strike a Pheasant, which it 
killed immediately, and devoured all the young bird except 
the leg and wing bones. ‘The remains agreed exactly with 
those of eight found before. Perfect confidence may be placed 
in the correctness of this statement.’ They wander at times 
into stubble fields, in the neighbourhood of their usual haunts, 
in search of food, or even venture into the farmer’s stack- 
ard. 
: The note is a mere cry or sort of chirping call, moderately 
loud. 
The nest, which is large, is strongly put together, though 
only of rough workmanship, and is commonly found well 
