328 THE WATER-HEN. 



garden ; for, though straw and leaves are their chief 

 ingredients, they seem to have an eye for beauty, and 

 the old hen has been seen surrounded with a brilliant 

 wreath of scarlet anemones. As in this case, so do they 

 usually build their nests on stumps of trees, or con- 

 venient bushes, by the side of the water ; and artlessly 

 formed as it is of a few rushes, one might suppose that 

 it would be easily discovered, which would be the case 

 but for the caution adopted by the bird, who, before she 

 quits her eggs, covers them carefully up, for the joint 

 purpose of concealment and warmth. A person fishing 

 on the banks of the Thames, when passing a willow-bed, 

 heard a slight rustling motion : suspecting it to proceed 

 from some water-bird he kneeled down, and remained 

 perfectly quiet, when the noise ceased. On rising and 

 looking about, he saw a Water-Hen busily employed in 

 collecting dry rushes and flags, and laying them one by 

 one over her eggs deposited in one of these bare nests 

 close beside her. It was not long before she had com- 

 pletely hidden them ; and then, looking round with a 

 cautious glance, not aware that her motions were ob- 

 served, softly and silently glided away amongst the reeds 

 and disappeared. On a nearer approach, strange to 

 say, the nest was with difficulty found, and no one who 

 had not previously ascertained its existence was there- 

 abouts, could possibly have discovered it. 



We have said that they usually build either upon a 

 level with, or very little raised above the water, but not 

 invariably so, for although almost entirely confined to 

 the water, as their abiding as well as feeding-place, 

 they will not only perch on trees when roosting, but even 

 build their nests at a considerable elevation above the 

 ground. An instance of this occurred in Surrey, where 

 the attention of a person who had landed upon an island 

 in the middle of a large pond, was drawn to a mass of 

 dry rushes, flags, and reeds, strangely heaped together, 

 about twenty feet above the ground in a spruce-fir tree. 

 Curiosity induced him to climb up, when, to his sur- 



