THE WATER-HEN. 123 



concealment and warmth. A person, fishing on the 

 banks of the Thames, when passing a willow-bed, 

 heard a slight rustling motion: suspecting it to pro- 

 ceed from some water-bird, he kneeled down, and 

 remained perfectly quiet, when the noise ceased. 

 On rising, and looking about, he saw a Water-Hen 

 busily employed in collecting dry rushes and flags, 

 and laying them one by one over her eggs, deposited 

 in one of these bare nests close beside her. It was 

 not long before she had completely hidden them; 

 and then, looking round with a cautious glance, not 

 aware that her motions were observed, softly and 

 silently glided away amongst the reeds, and dis- 

 appeared. On a nearer approach, strange to say, the 

 nest was with difficulty found, and no one, who had 

 not previously ascertained its existence was there- 

 abouts, could possibly have discovered it. 



We have said that they usually build either upon 

 a level with, or very little raised above the water, 

 but not invariably so, for, although almost entirely 

 confined to the water, as their abiding as well as 

 feeding-place, they will not only perch on trees 

 when roosting, but even build their nests at a con- 

 siderable elevation above the ground. An instance 

 of this occurred in Surrey, where the attention of a 

 person, who had landed upon an island in the middle 

 of a large pond, was drawn to a mass of dry rushes, 

 flags, and reeds, strangely heaped together, about 

 twenty feet above the ground, in a spruce-fir tree. 

 Curiosity induced him to climb up, when, to his 

 surprise, out crept a Water-Hen, which dropped into 

 the pond, and made off towards the shore. 



But it is not only in their instinctive attachments 



