2704 Birds. 



them to you to add to your collection. I take them to be slight varieties of Scolopax 

 Gallinago. — Frederick Bond; Kingsbury, Middlesex, January 7, 1850. 



On some of the Habits of the Waterhen (Gallinula chloropus). — Recent contribu- 

 tions to the ' Zoologist,' on the subject of the roosting of the common gallinule in 

 trees, have caused it to strike me as very remarkable that so prominent a point of ob- 

 servation on the habits of this very common and very easily observed bird should so 

 long have escaped the notice of naturalists, and of most writers on the subject. No 

 English naturalist that I am aware of, since Willughby, has adverted in his writings 

 to its very common habit of perching in trees. Montagu, indeed, says it does so 

 " when alarmed," and Macgillivray that it sometimes perches on the stump of a wil- 

 low ; but neither seems to have credited the fact recorded by Willughby in these 

 words : " Ramis insidet, sed iis tantum qui densi et aquis vicini sunt." In the latter 

 part of this assertion, indeed, he is not quite correct, as although thick bramble- 

 bushes and evergreens, holly, laurels, spruce firs, &c, are its favourite resorts as 

 roosting-places, it by no means makes use of these only to sit upon ; but the " father 

 of British Ornithology " is here, as elsewhere in cases where he has had the opportu- 

 nity of seeing for himself, in the main correct. The bird is extremely abundant in 

 my own county (Leicestershire) and neighbourhood ; and as attention has been drawn 

 to the subject, it may not be amiss to record the observations of this bird's habits, 

 which numberless opportunities have rendered familiar to myself. The gallinule not 

 only roosts in trees, — for which purpose, as I have remarked, it usually selects a thick 

 bush or an evergreen, — but in the day-time, in winter more particularly, it may very 

 commonly be observed sitting in such situations, and usually close by the bole, if the 

 tree be a larch or spruce. Whenever thus seated, shy as this bird is upon the water 

 or on land, it may be very easily approached. I have frequently gone quite close to 

 the tree without disturbing its occupant, nor does it usually quit its seat unless 

 frightened by noise or by shaking the tree. Where there is a " spinney" of firs, low 

 and thick, a good thicket of brambles, or copse of evergreens, in the vicinity of a pond 

 or stream tenanted by these birds, numbers (if the place has been previously undis- 

 turbed) may be found on an autumn or winter's afternoon, especially if the weather 

 be cold, congregated together. You may then, by shaking the boughs, send out one 

 or two at a time, affording an easy shot in their flight, should you or your companions 

 be armed and inclined to shoot them, till all are gone. I have known this method 

 frequently adopted, and have myself aided in battues of the kind, where the birds are 

 plentiful enough. Their tameness, however, under such circumstances, is usually 

 their protection with me, and I have often had my gun-muzzle within a yard of them 

 and left them undisturbed. When at roost, I have no manner of doubt, they may be 

 taken with the hand, their whereabout of course having been previously marked. But 

 neither are these rami densi the gallinule's only arboreal seat. I have often met 

 with them in the day-time, sitting on boughs of small trees, ash or willow, or perhaps 

 a hawthorn, overhanging their pond or stream, quite exposed, and visible at many 

 yards distance : even then you may go, very quietly, almost up to them ; and you 

 may see them, as I have done, bridling up their heads with a jerk, flirting up their 

 tails, and uttering their ready half-barking half-crowing cry at your approach, with- 

 out an attempt to evade you further than by walking along the boughs away from 

 you. In doing this, walking namely along boughs, these birds evince a singular fa- 

 culty. I have seen them walk along long bending twigs, that descended and danced 

 with their weight, with the *ame ease and security as over the broad leaves of the 



