ALONG THE RIVER 91 



pale. Careful watching may show the young dabchicks 

 riding on their parents' backs, or even taking a trip beneath 

 the water, held beneath their wings. 



Moorhens' nests abound in the reeds and rushes in June, 

 and change their character as the season advances. Their 

 nests of spring are substantial dishes of dry flags ; in the 

 warmer summer weather they often build for the later broods 

 slighter nests largely composed of green flags and sedges of 

 the year's growth. But these later nests built to hold eggs 

 must not be confused with the slighter platforms, also formed 



MOORHEN CHICKS 



of green blades and stems, which the old and young birds 

 build among the reeds simply to rest on. And all these 

 structures of the moorhen are distinct from the platforms 

 made by the water-rats, on which they sit upright like 

 squirrels, and nibble the soft white stems of water-plants with 

 incisors shivering in the rodents' familiar manner. So does a 

 tame rabbit munch a cabbage-stalk, though he has not the 

 skill to lift his food in his paws. Moorhens' and water-rats' 

 platforms can be easily distinguished, for the rodent gnaws 

 the stems into lengths, while the bird packs and twists them 

 into a rough circle. Besides moorhens and dabchicks and 

 coots on some slower and wider streams, a fourth species of 

 water-bird seems to make its appearance in June and July. 



