136 BITISH BIRDS, THEIR EGGS AND NESS. 
223. MOOR HEN—(Gallinula chloropus). 
Water Hen, Gallinule, Moat Hen, Marsh Hen.—Few nest- 
hunters, however young, but know the nest and eggs of this very 
common bird. I have in many cases seen it almost domesticated, 
and constantly taking its food among domestic fowls, and some- 
times even almost from the hands of human creatures. Its nest 
is made in somewhat various places. I have seen it amid the 
sedges growing in the water near the edge of a marsh-ditch or 
the like, on dry tussocky tumps near a sheet of water, among 
the herbage and willow stubs not far from the same Mere, built 
upon masses of fallen but not decayed bulrushes and flags, at 
the edge of a pond, on a bough projecting several feet horizon- 
tally from the bank over and resting upon (or partly in) the 
water of a running stream, nay, even in a branch or top of a 
thick tree, or among the ivy which mantled its trunk and 
wreathed its branches. In it are laid six, seven, or eight eggs, 
of a reddish-white colour, sparingly speckled and spotted with 
reddish-brown. The eggs have been known to be removed by 
the parent birds under circumstances of peril awaiting them— 
from a flood for instance—and hatched in some new locality. 
Instances also have been recorded in which a supplementary nest 
has been constructed by the female parent to receive a part of 
her brood, when they were too numerous and had grown too 
large to be accommodated by their original nest-home at night.— 
Fig. 7, plate IX. 
VI.—LOBIPEDID A. 
224.—COOT—(Fulica atra). 
Bald Coot.—A common bird enough in many parts of tae king- 
dom, and, in former days, I have sometimes seen them in strag- 
gling flocks of several hundreds or thousands along the tide-way 
