OF THE /BIRDS MENTIONED 135 
known at once by its larger size and its white beak and 
forehead, and is much rarer in most parts.) Not migra- 
tory. (Specimens, however, found from time to time 
in the Channel Islands must have come there from 
France or England.) Length: 13 to 14 inches. Food: 
Water insects found in mud andon floating débris, or 
in the soft earth of meadows, etc. Plumage: (see 
above) head, neck and breast, dark greyish-purple, 
almost black ; back, almost black, tinged olive ; under 
part of body, very dark purple; wings, almost black, 
with a dark green tinge, and under parts streaked white ; 
tail, short, round, white underneath. Male and female 
much alike except the red on the beak as noticed above. 
Edible. Nest: In end of March. Well concealed or 
not. Situated either low down and near the water in 
reeds, rushes, etc., or some distance away in a bush and 
several feet from the ground. The young take to water 
very soon after hatching. (Moorhens are not web- 
footed though they swim easily, but slowly, but cannot 
perch properly, the legs and feet being more adapted 
for wading.) Made of materials growing close by 
(rushes, grasses, etc.), and lined with softer dried pieces 
of the same. About 6 inches across inside and deep in 
proportion, the materials being piled up from a low 
foundation. Second nests: Often. Eggs: MReddish- 
white, speckled and spotted with brown. Seven or 
eight, but sometimes even eighteen or twenty are found 
(laid by two birds). 
