188 A HISTORY OF 



or tlie pond edged with shrubby trees, the water-hen is generally a 

 resident there : she seeks her food along the grassy banks, and often 

 along the surface of the water. With Shakspeare's Edgar, she drinks 

 the green mantle of the standing pool ; or, at least, seems to prefef 

 those places where it is seen. Whether she makes pond-weed her 

 food, or hunts among it for water-insects, which are found there in 

 great abundance, is not certain. I have seen them when pond-weed 

 was taken out of their stomach. She builds her nest upon low trees 

 and shrubs, of sticks and fibres, by the water-side.. Her eggs are 

 sharp at one end, white, with a tincture of green, spotted with red. 

 She lays twice or thrice in a summer ; her young ones swim the mo- 

 ment they leave the egg, pursue their parent, and imitate all her 

 manners. She rears, in this manner, two or three broods in a sea- 

 son : and when the young are grown up, she drives them off to shift 

 for themselves. 



As the coot is a larger bird, it is always seen in larger streams, and 

 more remote from mankind. The water-hen seems to prefer inhabit- 

 ed situations : she keeps near ponds, moats, and pools of water near 

 gentlemen's houses ; but the coot keeps in rivers, and among rushy 

 margined lakes. It there makes a nest of such weeds as the stream 

 supplies, and lays them among the reeds, floating on the surface, and 

 rising and falling with the water. The reeds among which it is built 

 keep it fast ; so that it is seldom washed into the middle of the 

 stream. But if this happens, which is sometimes the case, the bird 

 sits in her nest, like a mariner in his boat, and steers with her legs 

 her cargo into the nearest harbour : there, having attained her port, 

 she continues to sit in great tranquillity, regardless of the impetuosity 

 of the current ; and though the water penetrates her nest, she hatches 

 her eggs in that wet condition. 



The water hen never wanders ; but the coot sometimes swims down 

 the current, till it even reaches the sea. In this voyage these birds 

 encounter a thousand dangers : as they cannot fly far, they are hunt 

 ed by dogs and men ; as they never leave the stream, they are attack- 

 ed and destroyed by otters ; they are preyed upon by kites and falcons ; 

 and they are taken in still greater numbers, in weirs made for catch 

 ing fish ; for these birds are led into the nets, while pursuing small 

 fish and insects, which are their principal food. Thus Animated 

 Nature affords a picture of universal invasion ! Man destroys the ot- 

 ter, the otter destroys the coot, the coot feeds upon fish, and fish are 

 universally the tyrants of each other ! 



To tnese birds, with long legs and finny toes, I will add one species 

 more, with short legs and finny toes : I mean the Grebe. The entire 

 resemblance of this bird's appetites and manners to those of the web- 

 footed class, might justly induce me to rank it among them ; but as 

 it resembles those above described, in the peculiar form of its toes, 

 and bears some similitude in its manners also, I will for once sacri- 

 fice method to brevity. The grebe is much larger than either of the 

 former, and its plumage white and black : it differs also entirely in 

 the shortness of its legs, which are made for swrmming, and not walk- 

 ing : in fact, they are from the knee upward hid in the belly of the 

 bird, and have consequently very little motion. By this mark, and by 



