Birds. 1397 



I do not think apply to the matter in question ;" and in the ' Zoologist' (Zool. 1371) 

 he expresses " not a little surprise." I think I may he permitted to he at least a little 

 surprised that Mr. Slaney does not even attempt to reply to any one of my arguments, 

 nor condescend to say which those are that " do not apply to the matter in question," 

 and why they do not apply ; nor vouchsafe any notice, save surprise, to my facts ; — 

 supposing, i. e., the surprise excited by the facts, and not by the statement. On the 

 whole, I think my remarks concerning posture and change of posture, will be sufficient 

 to show on what slight grounds Mr. Slaney has built his ingenious defence of his mis- 

 apprehension of my remarks ; which misapprehension, moreover, he adheres to still, 

 though I strove to remove it eighteen months ago. He himself (Zool. 1369), calls 

 that a " reappearance v which he calls a " posture " a few sentences after : now, 

 " reappearance " implies motion ; but " posture," I think, implies rest. And therefore, 

 Mr. Slaney, knowing I was describing a reappearance, ought scarcely to have made 

 me out to be describing a posture ; especially when " the state of submergence ''was so 

 clearly defined a few lines above. It is, perhaps, scarcely necessary to remark, that 

 supposing the moorhen holds itself submerged, or all covered by the water but its beak ; 

 I suppose also when it begins, and as it continues, its gradual reappearance, it still re- 

 tains its hold on the objects of its grasp. My idea of partial submergence is given in 

 the 'Zoologist' (Zool. 500), in describing the habits of the clabchick, and repeated at 

 the bottom of page 756 ; and I think that this definition ought to have been sufficient 

 to prevent any confusion in Mr. Slaney's mind between that state in which almost all 

 water-birds may very frequently be seen, and the manner in which the moorhen leaves 

 the concealment it has sought in submergence. The moorhen unquestionably has the 

 power of partial submergence in common with the multitude of water-fowl, and in that 

 state makes, as Mr. Slaney has observed it doing, the same use of its feet as they of 

 theirs. And when Mr. Slaney states this, I do " cordially agree " with him; still this, 

 my cordial agreement, is in no way inconsistent with my belief that no moorhen, nor yet 

 any other bird, can maintain that posture in which " no part of the body, but the beak 

 only is left out of water," (Zool. 500), exclusively of external assistance. And here I 

 would repeat a question I have before asked (Zool. 757), " Did Mr. Slaney ever ac- 

 tually detect a moorhen, or any individual of* the various classes of water-fowl,' so sub- 

 merged in ' deep water ' and where there were no weeds or flags whatever near the sur- 

 face ?" " So submerged" meaning, so covered by the water that only the beak is out of the 

 water. There is one part of Mr. Slaney's ' Further Notes,' beginning " But after 

 Mr. A.'s admission, &c," which I do not clearly understand. I particularly refer to the 

 passage, " I am the more puzzled to know, where the line is to be drawn, and at what 

 particular depth such power is required ; supposing the head and all parts of the bird's 

 body to be under water." Now in every paper of mine I have referred to the circum- 

 stance that the submerged moorhen's beak is above water. A moorhen cannot of 

 course dive, or submerge itself, unless the water be sufficiently deep to admit of it. 

 And if sufficiently deep, it matters not, as it seems to me, whether it be only just suffi- 

 ciently deep, or deep enough to cover a mountain instead of a moorhen. A moorhen 

 submerged, is as much submerged in one foot of water, as in fifty, or five hundred. I 

 do not, therefore, understand what is meant by the phrase " at what particular depth, 

 &c." May I ask, has Mr. Slaney well considered the form of the first question he has 

 referred to Messrs. Yarrell, T. C. Eytou, and Sir W. Jardine ; viz., " Do the moorhen 

 and other aquatic birds when alarmed descend to the bottom of the water and there re- 

 main submerged and in a quiescent state?'' I should think that the question con- 



