236 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



Young. Browner than the adult, the head a little more 

 dusky-brown than the back ; sides of face dark brown ; throat 

 white, with dusky bases to the feathers ; rest of under surface 

 brown, the feathers edged with white ; abdomen entirely white ; 

 the flank-stripes buffy-white and very narrow ; bill black, dull 

 red along edge of tomium and on lower mandible ; legs fleshy- 

 brown, darker on the tarsal joint and toes ; claws light horn- 

 brown. 



The young bird gains the adult plumage in the following 

 spring, by the shedding of the brown or whitish margins of 

 the feathers of the under surface, so that the grey plumage of 

 the adult gradually supervenes. 



Range in Great Britain. The Moor-Hen is found all over the 

 British Islands, and is resident, a slight southern migration taking 

 place when severe winters reign in the north. It is equally 

 widely distributed in Ireland as in England and Scotland. 



Eange outside the British Islands. The present species is 

 found over the greater part of the Old World, but does not 

 range very far north, breeding sparingly in Scandinavia up to 

 63 N. Lat, and in Russia as far as the S. Petersburg district. 

 In China and the Indo-Malayan region the Moor-Hens are 

 somewhat smaller in size, but the bird from Africa and Mada- 

 gascar (so called G. pyrrhorhod] is the same as our own 

 European bird. In America an allied species of Moor-Hen 

 (G. galeatd) replaces G. chloropus, and in Australia the latter 

 species is represented by G. tenebrosa and in the Moluccas by 

 G. frontata. 



Habits. This bird is not an inhabitant of the moors, as its 

 name might seem to imply, but of our rivers, lakes and marshes, 

 and the word " moor," as Mr. Saunders points out, is the 

 equivalent of the old word " mire," or " marsh." A very small 

 sheet of water, even a small pond, if it is sufficiently surrounded 

 by rushes or studded with weeds, is enough to attract a Moor- 

 Hen, and within a hundred yards of the room in which I am 

 now writing at Chiswick (March, 1897), a pair of birds are 

 preparing to make their nest in a neighbour's pond, where they 

 have bred for several years in succession. Given a little en- 

 couragement, and the Moor-Hen becomes very tame, and will 

 walk about the lawn and even come close to the house for food. 



