194 THE BIRDS OF SUSSEX. 



the G-reat Pond. Mr. Harper, of Norwich, says that he had 

 found in one of these birds a full-grown Common Shrew 

 (Zoologist, p. 3990), and in p. 215, 1882, is recorded an 

 instance of its feigning death. 



MOORHEN. 



Qallinula chloropus. 



This, also known as the Waterhen, is the commonest of all 

 the Rallida, and there is scarcely a pond or stream in the 

 county where it may not be found. Though somewhat wary, 

 it is not nearly so much given to concealment as its con- 

 geners, and swims and dives with the greatest facility. 



It often visits ponds in the neighbourhBod of houses, and 

 becomes occasionally very tame, even feeding with the 

 domestic fowls. At Cowfold Vicarage several of these birds 

 would come regularly, on hearing the bell at meal-times, to 

 pick up whatever was thrown from the window, and were 

 especially fond of boiled potatoes. I have seen one actually 

 sitting on the back of a large dog lying on the doorstep there. 

 It was very remarkable that this dog, though it would eagerly 

 hunt the Moorhens in other places, was on the best of terms 

 with those of the Vicarage, and never molested them. They 

 will often wander about the meadows on the borders of 

 streams and ponds, in search of worms, &c. They also feed 

 on various insects and small fish. The nest is generally 

 placed in the flags, or coarse herbage by the side of water, 

 or on the branches of a tree overhanging it. I have found 

 it, too, on the heads of pollards by the water-side, and once 

 in the deserted nest of a Magpie, in a thick hawthorn, some 

 ten feet from the ground. A Moorhen bred for several years 



