322 BIRDS OF DAMARA LAND. 



Waterhen literally swarming in all the vleys of this 

 country, where it breeds most abundantly. Its flesh 

 is much esteemed by the natives, who make up great 

 hunting parties to chase these birds out of the water on 

 to the dry land, where, as they unwillingly take wing 

 and try to conceal themselves in the bushes and grass, 

 they are easily secured, being sometimes shot with 

 arrows and sometimes taken alive. 



I have examined a number of specimens ; and, as far as 

 I can see, the dark slaty blue ones are the adult males. 

 In the females the plumage is more or less light grey 

 beneath, and nearly white on the chin and throat. 



In the adult males the frontal shield is bright red and 

 the bill bright yellow ; the legs and toes in some speci- 

 mens are grass-green, in others drab or flesh-coloured, 

 tinged with light green ; in the adult females the bill 

 resembles that of the males, but the frontal shield is 

 hardly so bright, and is tinged with orange next the 

 feathers; in younger birds the shield is orange-red and 

 the plumage still lighter than in the old females. I 

 infer, from the development of the sexual organs, that 

 the young birds breed before they have arrived at 

 maturity. 



The eggs of this Waterhen are from five to six in 

 number, of a yellowish white, freely covered with small 

 spots of light brown, with here and there a blotch 

 of the same colour. The nest is a mass of grass, with 

 its foundation laid on the water, and composed of standing 

 stalks bent downwards, with some loose ones added; 

 the hollow in which the eggs are laid is three or four 



