MOOR-HEN 



WATER-HENCOMMON GALLINULE MOAT-HEN MOOR- 

 COOT MARSH-HEN. 



PLATE CLXXXI. FIGURE I. 



Gallinula chloropus, .... MACGILLIVRAY. 

 Fulica chloropus, LINNAEUS. 



THE nest of the Moor- Hen, which is large, is strongly 

 put together, though only of rough workmanship, and 

 is commonly found well concealed among reeds, long grass, 

 or the roots of trees, just above the water's edge, on the 

 margin of a stream or by a bank. It has been known as 

 much as three feet above the surface, on the stump of a 

 tree, or even on the lower branches of a fir, or in a thorn 

 bush at that elevation. The Rev. Leonard Jenyns has 

 recorded one instance in which it was constructed among the 

 ivy encircling a large elm, which hung over the water's 

 edge, at the height of at least ten feet from the ground. 

 He says, " There was a reason for it ; the rising of the 

 water in the pond frequently flooded the banks of the 

 island, and, as I had before witnessed, had destroyed 

 several broods." One was built upon the branches of a 

 willow overhanging the lake at Castle Howard, at the 

 height of four or five feet above the water. A writer in 

 the Magazine of Natural History, mentions another placed 

 in a fir tree twenty feet above the water. Mr. R. T. 



