MOORHENS AND PHEASANTS. 71 



old. As lie came amongst them they flew up in all directions, 

 their beaks full of the spoil. The dead birds not carried 

 away had all of their heads pulled off, and most of their legs 

 and wings torn from the body. I have long known that 

 rooks destroy partridges' nests and eat the eggs when short 

 of other food, but have never known a raid of this descrip- 

 tion. I attribute it to the excessive drought, which has so 

 starved the birds by depriving them of their natural insect 

 food that they are driven to depredation. It will be necessary 

 to be on guard for some time ; bad habits once acquired (as 

 with man-eating tigers) may last even more than one season. 

 Probably the half-dozen rooks first seen amongst the coops 

 tasted two or three, and, finding them eatable, brought their 

 iriends in numbers the next morning." 



The jMoorhen, Waterhen, or common Gallinule, is 

 occasionally destructive to young pheasants. Mr. Gould 

 recounted the evidence in "The Birds of Great Britain," and 

 Mr. H. J. Partridge, of Hockham Hall, Thetford, writing to 

 the Zoologist, stated that "At the beginning of July, the 

 keeper having lost several pheasants about three weeks old 

 from a copse, and having set traps in vain for winged and 

 four-footed vermin, determined to keep watch for the 

 aggressor, when, after some time, a Moorhen was seen 

 walking about near the copse ; the keeper, supposing it only 

 came to eat the young pheasants' food, did not shoot it, until 

 he saw the Moorhen strike a young pheasant, which it killed 

 immediately, and devoured, except the leg and wing bones. 

 The remains agreed exactly with eight found before." 



Lord Lilford, writing in "Dresser's Birds of Europe," 

 says : " I look upon the Waterhen as an enemy to the game- 

 preserver, not only from the quantity of pheasant food which 

 it devours, but from the fact that it will attack, kill, and eat 

 young birds of all sorts. The bird is a great favourite of 

 mine, and I should be sorry to encourage its destruction, but 

 I am persuaded that it is a dangerous neighbour to young 

 game birds"; and in bis "Birds of Northamptonshire," he 



