RALLIDA. 517 
THE MOOR-HEN. 
GALL{NULA CHLOROPUS (Linnzus). 
This familiar species, also known as the Water-hen, is generally 
distributed throughout the British Islands, and is, asa rule, stationary ; 
though a partial migration takes place in winter from the northern 
districts where the cold weather is severe and continuous. Else- 
where the Moor-hen manages to exist very well during frosts, resorting 
to running streams when ponds are frozen over, and finding shelter 
in plantations, hedge-rows and thick bushes. Its trivial name had 
its origin at the time when ‘moor’ was equivalent to mire or 
‘marsh.’ 
As a wanderer the Moor-hen has occurred in the Feroes and the 
south of Iceland ; but in Scandinavia it only breeds sparingly up to 
lat. 63°, while in Russia it seldom nests as far north as St. Petersburg. 
Throughout the rest of Europe it is more or less common in suitable 
localities, and is resident in the Canaries, Madeira and the Azores, 
as well as in Africa north of the Sahara ; its numbers in the last being 
reinforced by migrants from the north in winter. Southward it can 
be traced along both sides of that continent to Cape Colony, but 
birds found in Madagascar, Réunion and the Seychelles are some- 
what different, while a remarkable island-species, G. meszotis, is found 
in the Tristan da Cunha group. From Ceylon and the Philippines 
northward our Moor-hen is resident in Asia up to the main island of 
Japan, and it breeds as far north as Lake Baikal in Siberia. A closely- 
