218 FLIGHT OF MOORHENS AT NIGHT. [PART II. 



woolly fleece, especially about the head and 

 shoulders." 



Others, besides myself, have probably noticed 

 how suddenly and mysteriously Moorhens will 

 sometimes disappear from a piece of water, espe- 

 cially if they have been disturbed by the cutting 

 of the wood on its banks or other causes. There 

 can be no difficulty in accounting for this, if, as 

 I am persuaded, they occasionally take at night 

 much more extensive flights than their general 

 habits would lead one to suppose probable. Un- 

 less there is any other bird, of which I am igno- 

 rant, whose cry precisely resembles that of the 

 Moorhen, I am positive that I have several times 

 heard them on wing at night high overhead, three 

 of the occasions being very remarkable, namely, 

 while they were passing over Christ Church (Ox- 

 ford), Lincoln's Inn Fields, and Blackfriars Bridge. 

 Of course it is possible that I may have been mis- 

 taken, but I am so intimately acquainted with the 

 cry of the bird that it would be very difficult to 

 satisfy me that such was the case. 



That they may have the power of taking such 

 extensive flights may, I think, be easily conceded, 

 when it is remembered that the Landrail, whose 

 power of wing scarcely, if at all, exceeds that of 



