BIRDS OF THE WAVE AND WOODLAND 209 



filters in the shallows through beds of cress, or deepens 

 into pools, so that the water-lily may spread its pads at 

 ease. And there are beds of bulrush and feathery-headed 

 reeds, into which they paddle ; and if you do not mind wet 

 feet, you can go and look right along the little ''pleached" 

 alleys they have made for themselves, to the end where the 

 nest, a heap of rushes with a comfortable hollow smooth- 

 lined with finer material, closes the passage. No bird nests 

 more becomingly than the moorhen, or more picturesquely ; 

 and if it were not that I remembered the enjoyment I 

 used to find in wading after them, and (with some shame 

 be it said) the excellence of the eggs when hard-boiled 

 cold, I should look back with more repentance than I do 

 to the wholesale manner in which I used to fill my hand- 

 kerchief full of the large speckled eggs, and triumphantly 

 distribute them along the table at tea-time. Alas ! for Clare's 

 supposition that 



" At distance from the water's edge 

 Or hanging sallow's farthest stretch 

 The moorhen builds her nest of sedge 

 Safe from destroying schoolboy's reach." 



While I robbed her — a moorhen by judicious robbery can 

 be made to go on laying twenty eggs and upwards — the 

 mother would get into the water under the shadow of the 

 reeds, and with only her head out, watch the spoliation in 



2 D 



