MOOR-HEN. 165 



about the moats.* They are found also on ponds which are 

 covered with aquatic herbage, old watercourses grown up 

 with vegetation, and among the rushes, reeds, and willows 

 of slow rivers. They can swim and dive with great facility, 

 assisted by an expansion of the membrane along the sides 

 of their toes. Moor-hens are commonly to be seen on the 

 surface of the water, swimming along with a nodding 

 motion of the head, picking up vegetable substances, first 

 on one side, then on the other, and feeding generally on 

 aquatic plants, small fishes, insects, worms, and slugs, for 

 some of which they may be seen early in the morning, and 

 again in the evening, walking over meadows near their 

 haunts, diligently searching among the grass, particularly 

 after a shower of rain in summer ; jerking up their tails as 

 they walk along, and showing the white under tail-coverts. 

 Selby mentions that he has several times known this 

 bird to have been taken on a line baited with an earth- 

 worm, intended for catching eels and trout ; and infers, 

 therefore, that it was by diving they obtain the larger 

 coleopterous water insects, aquatic worms, and the larvae 

 of dragon-flies, upon which they are known to feed. 



When suddenly disturbed, they will sometimes take a 

 short flight, with their legs hanging down, and will occa- 

 sionally perch in a tree ; they are, however, capable of 

 more extended exertion on the wing, but appear to prefer 

 the security afforded by thick rushes. 



Shenstone refers to the hiding habits of the Coot and 

 Moor-hen in the following lines : 



" to lurk the lake beside 



Where Coots in rushy dingles hide, 

 And Moorcocks shun the day." 



The nest is generally placed among reeds on the ground ; 

 sometimes among stumps, roots, or long grass, on a bank 

 at the edge of the water ; and the bird has been known to 



* Morish or moorish was formerly used for marshy, thus Spenser : 

 " The morish Cole and the soft-sliding Breane."- 



Faerie Queene, Bk. iv. c. xi. st. xxix. 

 And again " A huge great serpent all with speckles pide, 



To drench himself in moorish slime did trace." Virgil's Gnat. 



