rushes, but generally much more carefully finished in the centre. It is often 

 found concealed among the tall reeds on the edge of the water, sometimes in 

 the centre of a tuft of rushes, where the birds often drag down the sur- 

 rounding spikes and form a sort of dome to hide the nest, and, perhaps 

 most frequently in some patch of reeds or iris quite surrounded by water. 

 In districts subject to inundation the nest is often built on a fallen tree at 

 some height from the ground even in the top of a Pollard willow, or on 

 the flat branch of a large fir-tree. 



Perhaps the most curiously situated nest I have come across was in a 

 huge old silver fir beside a small pond. About thirty feet from the ground 

 the tree divided, and formed a large crevice, usually frequented by a pair of 

 owls ; but on my climbing up on one occasion, instead of the owl flying out as 

 I expected, out came a Waterhen, and on looking into the crevice I saw her 

 nest with nine eggs. I spent some time watching the nest when the eggs 

 were hatching, and saw the old birds carry down seven of the chicks, one 

 by one, clutched in their long toes. They always dropped them into the 

 water from a few inches above the surface, and flew along the top of the 

 water for some distance before alighting, to turn round and watch for a few 

 seconds before swimming up to the young one with bobbing head and jerking 

 tail. 



The Waterhen usually slips quietly away from her nest at the approach 

 of danger, generally pulling some of the lining of the nest over the eggs to 

 conceal them, but if suddenly alarmed she flies off from the nest with her 

 long legs hanging down, and drops clumsily into the nearest cover, where she 

 swims restlessly about, uttering her alarm-notes, which may be represented 

 by the syllables ' Kik-ik-ik-kek-ek-ek,' or sometimes ' Kerk-kerk-kerk? 



The number of eggs laid varies from four to ten, sometimes even as 

 many as twelve. They are pale buff or pale reddish brown in ground colour, 

 spotted with reddish brown and grey under-markings. The spots are never 

 very numerous, and vary in size from small peas to tiny specks ; some 

 specimens are much more sparingly marked than others, but the ground 

 colour is never very much hidden, even in the most richly marked specimens. 

 Very often one egg in the clutch is much more handsomely marked than all 

 the others, and there is often great disparity in size even in the same clutch. 

 They. vary in length from 1-9 to i'4 inch, and in breadth from 1-3 to ri 

 inch. They may be distinguished from the eggs of the Corncrake by their 

 larger size and heavier shells. 



Young in down are black. 



58 



