Birds by Land and Sea 



balls of black fluff with red bills and quick legs, 

 running and swimming in the best moorhen fashion. 



It is worthy of note that the young of the 

 moorhen have the conspicuous red bill from birth, 

 because birds with highly ornamental features of 

 this kind usually acquire them only at a later stage : 

 witness the oyster-catcher, which, as a chick, has the 

 bill and legs of a dull slaty colour, and only when 

 grown acquires the orange red bill and pinkish legs 

 of its parents. 



By wading across the weed-grown lake, I 

 got into close touch with that brood, the old 

 bird making little fuss beyond an occasional high 

 piping note, repeated several times in succession, 

 to give warning to her chicks. The chicks were 

 scattered about, feeding in the most grown-up fashion, 

 and as smart in taking cover as their dam. One of 

 them I intercepted as he was about to follow the 

 latter to a small island in the middle of the lake, and 

 he clapped down in some reeds on a comparatively 

 firm piece of marsh. For some minutes it was a 

 game of c touch ' between us. After a good deal of 

 dodging, I got him out by poking the reeds, and he 

 stood back in the open, watching me perkily with 

 one eye, as if forecasting the next move. As I 

 approached in a quick zig-zag, he turned tail and 

 slid into a small stream in a muddy channel at his 

 back. This was too wide for me to stride, but 

 narrow enough to jump, and when my young friend 

 found that I could not take to the water as he did, 



166 



