150 BRITISH BIRDS. 



October, after having had the advantage of a 

 neighbouring stubble, its flesh is very good. 



They make their nest of a large quantity of 

 withered reeds and rushes, closely interwoven, and 

 are particularly careful to have it placed in a most 

 retired spot, close by the brink of the water ; and it 

 is said the female never quits it without covering 

 her eggs with the leaves of the surrounding her- 

 bage. Pennant and Latham say, she builds upon 

 some IOW T stump of a tree, -or shrub, by the water's 

 side: no doubt she may sometimes vary the place 

 of her nest, according as particular circumstances 

 may command, but she generally prefers the other 

 mode of building it. She lays six or seven eggs at 

 a time, and commonly has two hatchings in a sea- 

 son. The eggs are nearly two inches in length, 

 and are irregularly and thinly marked with rust- 

 Coloured spots on a yellowish white ground. The 

 young brood remain but a short time under the 

 nurturing care of the mother; but as soon as they 

 are able to crawl out, they take to the water, and 

 shift for themselves. 



Although the Water Hen is no where numerous, 

 yet one species or other of them is met with in 

 almost every country. It is not yet ascertained 

 whether they ever migrate from this to other coun- 

 tries, but it is well known that they make partial 

 flittings from one district to another, and are found 

 in the cold mountainous tracts in summer, and in 

 lower and warmer situations in winter. 



On examination of several specimens of this bird, 

 in full feather, they were found, like most birds of 

 plain plumage, very little different from each other. 



