328 UALLIVM. 



made a nest among the grass on the bank, without using any 

 sticks in its construction, though these were abundant closely 

 around. The nest was partially lined with dead leaves of the 

 laurel : the brood was brought out in safety. The old bird took 

 the young under her wings (especially in the evening), as a hen 

 does her chickens, concealing them in the same manner from view. 

 There was now another nest made, to which the parent would 

 call her brood, and remain in it with them for some time. The 

 waterhens never covered their eggs on leaving the various nests 

 at Wolfhill, though, according to the observations of Mr. Selby, 

 such is the habit of the bird.* Their not doing so, however, at 

 this locality, is only another proof of their intelligence. We 

 have already seen that when a pair lost their eggs from these 

 being overflowed by water, they made a nest close by " on the 

 firm-set earth/'' and that, instead of the usual course, when the 

 nest is built about water, of elevating it on a mound of sticks, 

 dispensing altogether with them, though they were plentiful 

 around : — we now see them departing from the ordinary habit of 

 covering the eggs, in a locality where they found themselves pro- 

 tected and knew they had no enemies to fear. 



Some birds rear two or three broods in the same nest, and even 

 return year after year to it. On the other hand, the water- 

 hen is not always content with a single nest for one brood, but 

 will make a second one or raft, and sometimes several rafts for it : 

 these, however, being slightly made, are soon constructed. A 

 friend, one evening, having laid a branch of a tree beside his 

 pond, was surprised the next morning by seeing one of these 

 nests not only completed on it, but the old bird and her young 

 in possession, although the nest in which the brood was brought 

 out was at the time perfectly good. A pair of these birds which 

 frequented another pond near Belfast, made several rafts for their 

 young, though the nest remained uninjured. Once at tin's pond, 

 where a pair only breeds, a nest containing five or six eggs was 

 inundated, and entirely covered with water for about seven hours, 

 when it was feared that the vitality of the eggs would be destroyed ; 

 * Vol. ii. p. 190. 



