MOOR-HEN. 95 
families remain until the following spring, when the original 
pair drive all the rest away, but not without many severe. 
and curious contests, frequently in the water, when they 
throw themselves on their backs, and strike at each other 
with their feet. When either of the combatants begins to 
find himself worsted, he dives and does not re-appear, thus 
eluding his adversary by hiding his whole body under water, 
and merely exposing his beak for respiration.’ 
Incubation continues three weeks. The young soon leave 
the nest, still attended by their mother, who leads them to 
the water, but, for a time, they return to it at night for 
shelter. The hen takes the young at times under her wings. 
The mother has been seen to fly down with a young bird in 
each foot, from the nest built a few feet over the water on 
the branch of a tree. 
The plumage in this species is close and thick-set. Male; 
weight, from fourteen to sixteen ounces, Bewick says from 
ten and a half to fifteen, but this may be accounted for by 
their emaciated condition in very severe weather; length, one 
foot one inch to one foot two; bill, greenish yellow, the base 
bright red, ascending up the forehead, both brightest in the 
spring; iris, dusky reddish. Head, small, and on the crown, 
as is the neck on the back and nape, deep blackish purple 
grey; throat and breast above, dark slate grey; below, mar- 
gined with dull greyish white; on the sides streaked with 
white, and in the spring glossed with a reflection of green; 
back, very dark blackish brown, with a tinge of olive, 
brightest in the spring. 
The wings have a white edge at the bend; primaries, greyish 
black. The tail, which is greyish black with a tint of deep 
green, is rounded at the tip; upper tail coverts, white, with 
some black feathers; the former colour is visibly shewn when 
the bird, as before mentioned, flirts up its tail. There are 
sometimes a. few white feathers on the thighs. The legs, 
which are placed rather far backwards, are surrounded above 
the knee with a red band or garter, and are otherwise, as 
are the toes, which are very long, the hind one considerably 
produced as well as the others, pale dull green: the latter are 
fringed out with scales. Claws, dark brown. 
The female is like the male, but is less in size; the red on 
the bill is deficient. The garter above the knee is also less 
bright. 
The young are at first clothed in black hair-like down. In 
