96 BIRDS IN LONDON 



clergyman, in Cheadle, Staffordshire, in con- 

 stantly adding to the materials of their nest 

 and decorating it, made real havoc in the 

 garden ; the hen was once seen sitting on her 

 eggs ' surrounded with a brilliant wreath of 

 scarlet anemones.' An instance equally re- 

 markable occurred in 1896 in Battersea Park. 

 A pair of moorhens took it into their fantastic 

 little heads to build their nest against a piece 

 of wire-netting stretched across the lake at 

 one point. It was an enormous structure, 

 built up from the water to the top of the 

 netting, nearly three feet high, and presented a 

 strange appearance from the shore. On a close 

 view the superintendent found that four tail- 

 feathers of the peacock had been woven into its 

 fabric, and so arranged that the four broad tips 

 stood free above the nest, shading the cavity 

 and sitting bird, like four great gorgeously 

 coloured leaves. 



The moorhen, like the ringdove, was almost 

 unknown in London twenty years ago, and is 

 now as widely diffused, but owing to its struc- 

 ture and habits it cannot keep pace with the 

 other bird's increase. It must have water, and 

 some rushes, or weeds, or bushes to make its 



