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HYACINTHINE GALLINULE.— Poi'ii/ijrrio veteruin. 



The under tail-coverts are white, tlie bill is light red, and the legs and feet are pinky red. 

 The length of this bird is about eighteen jinches. 



Our most familiar example of the Gallinules is the Water Hen, sometimes called the 

 ^ooR Hen. 



This bird may be seen in plenty in every river in England, and mostly on every pond 

 • )r sheet of water where the reedy or rushy banks offer it a refuge. It is a bold bird, 

 though sufficiently wary on occasions ; and while it will slip quickly out of sight of a dog 

 or a man with a gun, will swim about with perfect self-possession in a pond by the side 

 of a railway, quite undisturbed by the sound and sight of the rushing train. When startled 

 it Hies rapidly across the water with quick beating wings and dangling legs, leaving a long 

 track behind it, which will remain for some little time, like the wake of a ship. As it 

 nears its reedy refuge it sinks nearer the surface of the water, so that at the last yard or 

 two of its progress it drives the water before it, and seems equally to run or to fly. 



When startled it often dives on the instant, and, emerging under floating weeds or 

 rubbish, just pokes its bill above the surface, so that the nostrils are uncovered by the 

 water, and remains submerged until the danger is past, holding itself in the proper 

 position by the grasp of its strong toes upon the weeds. If wounded, it will often escape 

 by diving, so that unless the sportsman kills his birds on the spot he may lose liird after 

 bird unless he has a good dog with him. Sometimes it pretends to be wounded, and 

 drops into the shelter of reeds or bushes in so death-like a manner that the gunner is 

 deluded into the idea that he has killed his bird very neatly, and while he is reloading 

 away goes the Water Hen to some secure retreat. 



I once took a snap-shot from a boat at a fine male specimen, in a little pond at the end 

 of an inlet, and to my astonishment, after backing to the mouth of the little stream, saw 

 him swimming and nodding his head as coolly as if nothing had happened. I was going 

 to give him the second barrel, but, being short of ammunition, determined to paddle quietly 

 up the inlet in which the bird was swimndng, and to knock it over with an oar. The bird 

 took not the least notice of the boat, so I pushed the blade of the oar under it, lifted it out 

 of the water, and brought it into the boat. On examination I found that it had been 



