THE WATER HEN 



steps, stopping every few moments daintily to pick up 

 some food, and at intervals flicking its short tail. It is as 

 much at home in the water as on land, and although its 

 feet are not webbed it swims and dives with the greatest 

 ease. When swimming the peculiar nodding action of 

 the head will be remarked ; and it has a way of diving 

 very suddenly when alarmed and going for a long distance 

 under the surface, reappearing often amongst reeds and 

 rushes, in which it delights to conceal itself. It may also 

 very frequently be seen in a bush or low tree. Only last 

 winter I watched several of these birds in some white- 

 thorn trees in Hyde Park greedily eating the haws. Its 

 flight is not very powerful, nor usually much prolonged, 

 but on occasion it will mount into the air at night and 

 fly to and fro for a long time uttering its peculiar cry at 

 intervals. This note resembles the syllables kik-ik-ik, 

 modulated into ker-r-r-k, and is heard chiefly at dusk or 

 during the night. The food of the Water Hen is chiefly 

 composed of worms, insects, larvae, buds, seeds, and 

 tender shoots of plants, together with various berries. 

 In London it will eat almost anything, and in severe 

 weather frequently visits houses for what chance fare it 

 can find. It cannot exactly be regarded as gregarious, 

 but it is certainly social, and I have frequently seen a 

 dozen or more feeding on one small lawn after a shower. 

 It is an early breeder and nests may be noticed in the 

 London parks in March long before the flags and other 

 water-plants are high enough to conceal them. Nesting 

 becomes more general, however, in April, and, as several 

 broods are often reared in the season, is continued into 

 August. The big, untidy nest is made amongst reeds, 

 flags, rushes, and other aquatic plants, or under brambles 

 and thorn-bushes where the branches hang over or into 

 the water. Sometimes it is made quite a floating struc- 

 ture, anchored to the rushes some distance from land. 

 It is often a great heap of rotten aquatic herbage massed 



33 



