EGRETS, HERONS, ETC. 173 



of the collection. He was a most inveterate mur- 

 derer; now and then he would seem to repent of 

 his misdeeds, but the reformation was temporary, 

 and presently a new victim would fall before the 

 attacks of his fatal dagger of a beak. His reputa- 

 tion at length became so bad that he was kept 

 either in solitary confinement or only in the com- 

 pany of other birds, such as cormorants, snake-birds, 

 or purple-coots, who were quite as ill-conditioned 

 and almost as formidable as himself. 



Wherever there is a quiet pool with reedy 

 margins and patches of dense cover on the banks, 

 white-breasted water-hens, Amaurornis phoenicurus, 1 

 are almost always to be found, calling loudly to 

 one another as they wade in the shallows or pace 

 over the lawns, jerking their short erected tails 

 as they go, and in summer and autumn often 

 followed by their small, black, downy chicks. They 

 do not limit their walks to the immediate neigh- 

 bourhood of water, and are often to be seen 

 stepping about over wide spaces of grass, searching 

 for insects, and ready on the slightest alarm to 

 race off to the nearest cover. They look very 

 smart and alert when seen from a little distance, 

 stepping lightly about in their shining greenish - 

 black coats and white waistcoats, but on closer 

 inspection have a strangely imbecile expression, 

 owing to the shape and colouring of their heads. 

 Their nests are placed either in dense masses of 



1 They are of very much the same size as common moor-hens. 



