132 RALLJDJ}. 



a liberty any one with an incipient thirst for a knowledge 

 of natural history would be sure to avail himself of. One 

 day, having pushed off from the shore, and moored the 

 little shallop to some of the osiers wliich surrounded the 

 island, I began my accustomed examination. The first 

 object that attracted my attention was a lot of dry rushes, 

 flags, reeds, &c., enough to fill a couple of bushel baskets. 

 This mass was lodged about twenty feet from the ground, 

 in a spruce fir-tree, and looked for all the world as if it had 

 been pitched there with a hay-fork. I mounted instantly, 

 thinking of herons, eagles, and a variety of other wonders ; 

 just as my head reached the nest, flap, flap, out came a 

 Moor-hen, and, dropping to the water, made off in a direct 

 line along its surface, dip, dip, dip, dipping with its toes, 

 and was lost in the rushes of a distant bank, leaving an 

 evanescent track along the water, like that occasioned by a 

 stone which has been skilfully thrown to make ducks and 

 drakes. The nest contained seven eggs, warm as a toast. 

 The situation was a very odd one for a Moor-hen's nest ; 

 but there was a reason for it ; the rising of the water in 

 the pond frequently flooded the banks of the island, and, 

 as I had before witnessed, had destroyed several broods by 

 immersion." 



The following notice is from the pen of Mr. Waterton : 

 " In 1826 I was helping a man to stub some large 

 willows near the water's edge. There was a Water-hen's 

 nest at the root of one of them. It had seven eggs in it. 

 I broke two of them, and saw that they contained embryo 

 chicks. The labourer took up part of the nest, with the 

 remaining five eggs in it, and placed it on the ground about 

 three yards from the spot where we had found it. We 

 continued in the same place for some hours afterwards, 

 working at the willows. In the evening, when we went 

 away, the old Water-hen came back to the nest. Having 



