THE WATERMEN 597 



Gray noted the same proficiency in the case of a waterhen which was 

 in the habit of roosting each night in a poultry-shed, where it perched 

 on a rope and "swung itself to rest. . . . For ease and dexterity the 

 most proficient rope-walker could not have excelled the performance 

 of this feathered Blondin." l Unfortunately there is no record of the 

 actual position of the bird's toes when thus perched. There can, 

 however, be little doubt that equilibrium must in such cases be 

 maintained chiefly by balancing. 



A habit of the waterhen, often noted, but, by its very nature, 

 difficult to observe, is that of turning night into day. Its nocturnal 

 excursions often take it far from water. 2 In the mating season, 

 especially, 3 its cries may be heard in the air, and the noise of its 

 splashing in the reeds. In all this there is, of course, nothing 

 peculiar ; many species are active at night. In the breeding season 

 the notes of sea-bird colonies may be heard nearly all through, if 

 not all through, the night. And on fine nights in winter gulls are 

 often abroad long before daylight. 



The nocturnal note of the waterhen has been described as "a 

 short squeak," something like the cry of the barn-owl, but easily 

 distinguished from it by the fact of being repeated several times, 

 instead of twice only. 4 It uses the same note on migration. 5 It has 

 been syllabled as " kick kick kick" Another note of the bird is a sharp 

 single frog-like utterance, something like "krrexf" Its usual call- 

 note is a "krek krek, krek" I have heard from it what appeared 

 to be an alarm-note that sounded like "he'n Mn" the "n" merely 

 suggested. Nauniann figures the alarm-note as " kerrtetttet" To 

 its young it utters a soft purring " kurr." It calls them "with 

 a clucking note, uttered two or three times together," and the 

 same clucking has been heard from a bird sitting on her first clutch 

 of eggs. 6 



1 Birds of the West of Scotland, p. 335. * M. C. H. Bird (in litt.) corroborates this. 



3 Naumann, Vogel Mitteleuropas, vii. 147. * Field, 1888, vol. Ixxii. pp. 373 (F. Boyes), 433. 

 8 Naumann, op. cit., p. 148. 6 E. Selous, Bird Life Glimpses, pp. 277-8. 



VOL. III. 4 H 



