94, MOOR-HEN. 
was drawn to a mass of dry rushes, flags, and reeds, strangely 
heaped together, about twenty feet above the ground in a 
spruce fir tree. Curiosity induced him to climb up, when, 
to his surprise, out crept a Water-Hen, which dropped into 
the pond and made off towards the shore.’ 
The eggs are usually five, six, seven, or eight in number; 
nine or ten have, however, been often seen in one nest. They 
are of a reddish or yellowish white colour, spotted and speckled 
all over with reddish brown, they vary exceedingly in size. 
Three broods are commonly reared in the year, sometimes, it 
has been thought, even four; the first eggs are laid the end 
of April, or in May, and are, in early seasons or localities 
hatched in the latter month, but otherwise the beginning of 
June. It is a curious fact, first pointed out to me by Mr. 
Alington, that the youngest brood is carefully and kindly 
attended to by that which is its elder, as both are at the 
same time by the parents, but when a third comes, it is to 
the abandonment of the first. 
The late Bishop of Norwich, Dr. Stanley, also mentions 
this fostership:—He says, ‘They have three broods in a season; 
the first early in April, and they begin to lay again when 
the first hatch is about a fortnight old. They lay eight or 
nine eggs, and sit about three weeks, the cock alternately 
with the hen. The nest in the thorn bush is placed usually 
so high above the surface of the water, that when the young 
are first hatched, and have quitted it, they cannot climb into 
it again; but as a substitute, within an hour after they leave 
the nest, the cock-bird builds a larger and more roomy nest 
for them with sedges, at the water’s edge, which they can 
enter or retire from at pleasure. For about a month they 
are fed by the old birds, but soon become very active in 
taking flies and water-insects. Immediately on the second 
hatch coming out, the young ones of the first hatch assist 
the old ones in. feeding and hovering over them, leading them 
out in detached parties, and making additional nests for them, 
similar to their own on the brink of the moat. 
On the appearance of the third brood, the old ones inva- 
riably drive the first away to a neighbouring pond, where 
they remain until September, when the first hatch is about 
half-grown. 
About this time a fresh party of birds makes its appear- 
ance, which, from their tameness, is, no doubt, composed of 
broods formerly bred there, and in the moat the united 
