THE WATER HEN 
steps, stopping every few moments daintily to pick up 
some food, and at intervals flicking its short tail. It is as 
much at home in the water as on land, and although its 
feet are not webbed it swims and dives with the greatest 
ease. When swimming the peculiar nodding action of 
the head will be remarked; and it has a way of diving 
very suddenly when alarmed and going for a long distance 
under the surface, reappearing often amongst reeds and 
rushes, in which it delights to conceal itself. It may also 
very frequently be seen in a bush or low tree. Only last 
winter I watched several of these birds in some white- 
thorn trees in Hyde Park greedily eating the haws. Its 
flight is not very powerful, nor usually much prolonged, 
but on occasion it will mount into the air at night and 
fly to and fro for a long time uttering its peculiar cry at 
intervals. ‘This note resembles the syllables kik-ik-ik, 
modulated into ker-r-r-k, and is heard chiefly at dusk or 
during the night. ‘The food of the Water Hen is chiefly 
composed of worms, insects, larve, buds, seeds, and 
tender shoots of plants, together with various berries. 
In London it will eat almost anything, and in severe 
weather frequently visits houses for what chance fare it 
can find. It cannot exactly be regarded as gregarious, 
but it is certainly social, and I have frequently seen a 
dozen or more feeding on one small lawn after a shower. 
It is an early breeder and nests may be noticed in the 
London parks in March long before the flags and other 
water-plants are high enough to conceal them. Nesting 
becomes more general, however, in April, and, as several 
broods are often reared in the season, is continued into 
August. The big, untidy nest is made amongst reeds, 
flags, rushes, and other aquatic plants, or under brambles 
and thorn-bushes where the branches hang over or into 
the water. Sometimes it is made quite a floating struc- 
ture, anchored to the rushes some distance from land. 
It is often a great heap of rotten aquatic herbage massed 
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