416 BIRDS OP NORFOLK. 



As early as the 2nd of April, 1846, after a mild 

 winter, Mr. Blofeld found two young nestling water- 

 hens dead, in the sedge fen, at Hoveton, which were 

 then, at least, two or three days old, and I have 

 seen the young in the down with young birds about 

 three-quarters grown, at the end of June, and other 

 nestlings even as late as the 29th of August.* The 

 Rev. J. Burroughes informs me that he has seen a 

 young bird of the first brood assisting its parents by 

 bringing materials for a second nest, and the second 

 brood, when hatched, are also, in part, fed and fostered 

 by their older brothers and sisters; whilst additional 

 nests are constructed to meet the requirements of 

 the family so rapidly increasing in size and numbers. 

 Instances have been known of water-hens raising their 

 nests to avoid the consequences of a high tide; pre- 

 vious losses from the same cause having instinctively 

 led them to adopt such a course. With a like motive, 

 no doubt, the overhanging boughs of willow and other 

 trees, a foot or two above the surface of the water, are 

 not uncommonly selected for nesting purposes, as well 

 as even loftier situations. f 



* Mr. W. Jeffery, jun., in his " Ornithological notes from "West 

 Sussex," in the "Zoologist" for 1866, gives the following dates 

 from his own observations of three broods hatched by one pair of 

 water-hens during that year. April 1st, first brood hatched off; 

 April 23rd, a second nest completed and eggs laid; May 20th, 

 second brood hatched; June 20th, the old birds drove the first 

 brood away; 15th of July, a third brood hatched. These three 

 broods were thus hatched in a period of about eleven weeks. 



f "Busticus," in his "Letters on Natural History," edited by 

 Edward Newman, F.L.S., gives an account of a moorhen's nest, 

 which he discovered on an island, placed some twenty feet from 

 the ground, in a spruce fir-tree. The island itself was frequently 

 flooded. Mr. A. Newton also informs me that he has on more than 

 one occasion found this bird's nest in a fir-tree at a considerable 

 height from the ground, once at Culford at least twenty feet. 



