18 MOORHEN'S NEST IN A TREE. 



some of the osiers which surround the island, I began my 

 accustomed examination : the first object that attracted my 

 attention was a lot of dry rushes, flags, reeds, &c., enough 

 to fill a couple of bushel baskets. This mass was lodged 

 about twenty feet from the ground, in a spruce fir tree, 

 and looked for all the world as if it had been pitched there 

 with a hay-fork. I mounted instantly, thinking of herons, 

 eagles, and a variety of other wonders : just as my head 

 reached the nest, flap, flap, out came a MOORHEN, and, 

 dropping to the water, made off in a direct line along its 

 surface, dip-dip-dip-dipping with its toes (they do this just 

 to cool their toes, I have often conjectured), and was at 

 last lost in the rushes of a distant bank, leaving an evan- 

 escent track along the water, like that occasioned by a 

 stone which has been skilfully thrown to make "ducks 

 and drakes." The nest contained seven eggs, warm as a 

 toast. The situation was a very odd one for a moorhen's 

 nest ; but 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 by 

 immersion.* 



* I have frequently had an opportunity of observing a peculiar fact with re- 

 gard to the moorhen, to which an explanation was I believe first offered by the 

 Kev. J. C. Atkinson, at page 767 of the ' Zoologist.' I allude to the building 

 of supplementary nests, or nests not designed for the usual office of incubation : 

 these nests are generally manufactured about hatching time, and it has been 

 conjectured their object is to receive part of the young ones when they have be- 

 come loo large to be accommodated in the old nest: so that some are supposed 

 to use one nest and some the other. This idea seems, however, to require con- 

 firmation, more especially as supplementary nests, or nests not devoted to incu- 

 bation, are by no means of uncommon occurrence. I have known the common 

 wren build at all times of the year, and employ an autumn-built nest as a house 

 of nightly resort throughout the winter : indeed, boys at school are perfectly 

 familiar with these nests, and designate them * cocks' nests,' believing they are 

 tenanted only by the male wrens : but, quite independently of any apparent 



