130 RALLTDJE. 



lated ; feet four-toed, three before and one behind ; toes long, divided, and 

 bordered through their whole length by a narrow entire membrane. Wings 

 armed with a small, sharp, recumbent spine. Plumage soft, and thick, 

 but loose in texture ; body compressed at the sides. Selby. 



THE MOOR-HEN is one of those well-known, half-domes- 

 ticated species which afford interesting opportunities for 

 observations on habits. Dr. William Turner, who wrote 

 on British Birds three hundred years ago, calls this bird a 

 Water-hen, or a Mot-hen ; and Pennant says, that in the 

 days of moated houses they were very frequent about the 

 moats. They are found also on ponds which are covered 

 with aquatic herbage, old water-courses grown up with 

 vegetation, and among the rushes, reeds, and willows of 

 slow rivers. They can swim and dive with great facility, 

 assisted by an expansion of the membrane along the sides 

 of their toes ; a structure by which they are connected to 

 the fin-toed aquatic birds, the descriptions of which will im- 

 mediately follow. Moor-hens are commonly to be seen on 

 the surface of the water, swimming along with a nodding 

 motion of the head, picking up vegetable substances, first 

 on one side, then on the other, and feeding generally on 

 aquatic plants, small fishes, insects, worms, and slugs, for 

 some of which they may be seen early in the morning, and 

 again in the evening, walking over meadows near their 

 haunts, diligently searching among the grass, particularly 

 after a shower of rain in summer ; jerking up their tails as 

 they walk along, and showing the white under tail-coverts. 

 Mr. Selby mentions that he has several times known this 

 bird to have been taken on a line baited with an earth- 

 worm, intended for catching eels and trout; and infers, 

 therefore, that it is by diving they obtain the larger cole- 

 opterous water insects, aquatic worms, and the larvae of 

 dragon-flies, upon which they are known to feed. 



When suddenly disturbed, they will sometimes take a 



