MANGROVE-HEN. 367 



in from the sea by sand-banks, there is a good 

 deal of rank grass {Digitaria stolonifera) growing, 

 on which the village goats congregate to feed at 

 mid-day, that being the time when the ground is 

 least swampy. Among the sedge and bulrushes 

 that cover the flooded parts, at the same noon- 

 tide hours, the crek, crek, crek, of the Water-rail 

 is heard, v^ith that kind of impatient reiterated 

 sound, with which Guinea-fowl call to each other. 

 This call is a summons for the birds to quit the 

 sedges, and seek the muddy shoals and half-dry 

 ooze, to feed. Two or three birds nearly, if not 

 quite, as large as half grown pullets, of a dingy 

 ash-colour, come over a low intervening wall where 

 I am, and feed in the open yard. The country 

 people call this bird the Mangrove-hen, from its 

 appearance, its habits, and its haunts. It greatly 

 resembles the dappled grey variety of the common 

 fowl ; and in the breeding season it rambles about 

 with its callow brood, like a hen and chickens. 

 After one of these visits, I went and traced the 

 footmarks in the mud, and found that the Man- 

 grove-hens had been searching for small crabs. 

 Worms, shell-fish, insects, and Crustacea are its 

 animal food, and the seeds and shoots of aquatic 

 plants, its vegetable. As the rank-growing herbage 

 is necessary for its concealment, and creative wis- 

 dom has adapted it, like the rest of its tribe, by 

 an extraordinary expansion of the foot, for walking 

 on weedy waters, and so compressed its body that 

 it threads with alacrity reeds and rushes ; the man- 

 grove thickets, which it commonly haunts, are those 



