MOOR-HENS IN HYDE PARK 165 



back to its own home — ^that circumscribed spot of 

 earth and water which forms its little world, and 

 is more to it than all other reedy and willow-shaded 

 pools and streams in England. It is said to be shy 

 in disposition, yet all may see it here, within a few 

 feet of the Row, with so many people continually 

 passing, and so many pausing to watch the pretty 

 birds as they trip about their h'ttle plot of green 

 turf, deftly picking minute insects from the grass 

 and not disdaining crumbs thrown by the children. 

 A dainty thing to look at is that smooth, olive- 

 brown little moor-hen, going about with such 

 freedom and ease in its small dominion, lifting its 

 green legs dehberately, turning its yellow beak and 

 shield this way and that, and displaying the snow- 

 white undertail at every step, as it moves with that 

 quaint, graceful, jetting gait peculiar to the gallinules. 

 Such a fact as this — ^and numberless facts just 

 as significant, all pointing to the same conclusion, 

 might be adduced — ^shows at once how utterly 

 erroneous is that often-quoted dictum of Darwin's 

 that birds possess an instinctive or inherited fear 

 of man. These moor-hens fear him not at all ; 

 simply because in Hyde Park they are not shot 

 at, and robbed of their eggs or young, nor in any 

 way molested by him. They fear no living thing, 

 except the irrepressible small dog that occasionally 

 bursts into the enclosure, and himts them with 



