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~ you. x1.) NOTES ON THE MOOR-HEN. 173 
later a chick was out of the shell! Another hatched the 
following day, but no more appeared until the 24th and 25th, 
when three more hatched. The two remaining eggs were 
clear. I can only conclude that the eggs which gave rise to 
the first chicks must have been laid some ten days prior to the 
rest, for as a rule incubation takes with this species between 
twenty and twenty-two days. 
In the case of the pair on the pool in the garden the first 
chick appeared on the twenty-third day, having apparently 
been hatched the previous evening. The young ones hatched 
out one after the other, and the old birds were kept very busy 
carrying food to them, insects chiefly, in the nest, which they 
did not leave at once. The nest was now a considerable 
structure, for it had been added to daily while sitting was in 
progress. By the way, I saw no evidence of the male bird 
giving any help with incubation, though most attentive to the 
family. As for the nest, fresh green rushes, “ flags,”’ and dead 
leaves had been piled upon it, until now that the young ones 
-were ready to venture upon the water it was quite a high 
erection. To begin with it had only been a few inches above 
the water level, but the nest had risen considerably, and the 
pond had dried up a little, so the baby Moor-Hens had a drop 
of eighteen inches or more to face. But that did not matter, 
it was the question of getting back which was really serious. 
It was a stiff climb even for Moor-Hen chicks, which, 
with the claw on the rudimentary joint of their tiny flipper- 
like wings, have an aid which makes them marvellous at 
climbing up seemingly impossible places. All the same, 
the parents often rely too much on the climbing abilities of 
their offspring, placing the nest so high above the water that 
it is impossible for the young ones to get home again when once 
they have tumbled out. If a sudden alarm sends the chicks 
headlong into the water they cannot climb back into a nest 
on an overhanging branch of a tree! Yet many a nest is 
built in such a situation. The highest I have found was in an 
old pollard willow, and was fully twelve feet above the water. 
Once they had left it the young birds could never have got 
back into this nest. I am convinced that the bad choice 
of nesting-sites is a fruitful cause of mortality among the 
young Moor-Hens, for the old birds try and get the young 
home again ; the hen sits in the nest and calls, but the chicks, 
striving in vain to climb up, soon die of cold and exhaustion. 
Provided they are not disturbed, the young birds remain in 
the nest for the first day or two, and are fed in it by their 
parents. The black mites then begin to swim about after 
their parents, both of which take a keen interest in the welfare 
of the family. I witnessed a curious incident one day when 
