414 BIRDS OF NOEFOLK. 



the copse; the keeper supposing that it only came to 

 eat the young pheasants' food, did not shoot it until he 

 saw the moorhen strike a pheasant, which it killed 

 immediately, and devoured all the young bird except the 

 leg and wing bones. *" The remains agreed exactly with 

 those of eight found before." 



Though sombre in its general colouring, and prone 

 to concealment on the least intrusion upon its haunts, 

 the water-hen, whether in its natural element or trav- 

 ersing with its long wide spreading feet some floating 

 raft of decayed vegetation, forms a conspicuous object 

 owing to the pure whiteness of the under tail-coverts, 

 which contrast so sharply with the dark brown and grey 

 of the back and breast feathers. Thus, when flirting 

 their tails up and down and nodding their heads with 

 a quick nervous action as they pick right and left at any 

 insect atoms in their path, this species may be readily 

 distinguished at a considerable distance, and a nearer 

 view presents the bright colours of the beak and legs. 



Their nests, which are too familiar to need much 

 description here, vary considerably according to cir- 

 cumstances in the style of construction. The rough 

 loosely formed mass of reeds, flags, and rushes, which in 

 some localities may easily pass unnoticed from its simi- 

 larity to the dried Utter around, is very different to that 

 neatly made rush basket, almost as highly finished as 

 a coot's nest, which we find occasionally amongst the 

 outlying reed stems. Some also may be seen inge- 



* Mr. Gould states in his "Birds of Great Britain," that a 

 similar instance was witnessed a few years back on Sir Morton 

 Peto's estate, at Somerleyton; and a keeper at the Zoological 

 Society's Gardens, described this species as very destructive to 

 the young ducks, even attacking the old ones if they came to the 

 rescue, and as frequently nesting in the boxes erected for wild- 

 fowl on the various ponds " when not even a goose dare approach 

 within some yards of them." 



