154 love's meinie. 



"At a gentleman's house in Staffordshire, 

 the pheasants are fed out of one of those 

 boxes described in page 287, the Hd of which 

 rises with the pressure of the pheasant standing 

 on the rail in front of the box, A water-hen 

 observing this, went and stood upon the rail 

 as soon as the pheasant had quitted it ; but 

 the weight of the bird being insufficient to 

 raise the lid of the box, so as to enable it to get 

 at the corn, the water-hen kept jumping on the 

 rail to give additional impetus to its weight : 

 this partially succeeded, but not to the satis- 

 faction of the sagacious bird. Accordingly it 

 went off, and soon returning with a bird of its 

 own species, the united weight of the two had 

 the desired effect, and the successful pair en- 

 joyed the benefit of their ingenuity. 



"We can vouch for the truth of this 

 singular instance of penetration, on the autho- 

 rity of the owner of the place where it occurred, 

 and who witnessed the fact." 



121. But although in these sagacities, and 

 teachablenesses, the bird has much in common 

 with land poultry, it seems not a link between 

 these and water-fowl ; but to be properly 

 placed by the ornithologists between the rail 



