Birds. 497 



I have recorded the appearance of a small flock of siskins in this neighbourhood, which 

 fed upon certain larvae as well as alder-seeds. Indeed in the latter days of spring and 

 the summer months, most of our so-called grain- or seed-eating birds must subsist in 

 great measure on insect food. — Archibald Jerdon ; Bonjedward, January 20 1844. 



Notes on the Moorhen. Some six or eight winters since while walking in the mea- 

 dows by the river at Great Braxted in search of snipes, I came to a rather deep and 

 broad ditch : my dog presently roused from its hiding-place on the bank a water-hen, 

 which immediately dropped into the ditch and dived. The water happened to be re- 

 markably clear, and I saw every motion made by the bird. It was working its way 

 along the ditch, very near, if not actually touching the bottom ; but though its efforts 

 seemed very laborious, it did not make very rapid progress. Both wings and legs were 

 called into play; — the former partly extended on either side,* just as if the bird, which 

 seemed to totter as it moved, wished to preserve itself from falling by their means; with 

 the latter, I think, it touched the bottom ; but, looking down from above, I could not 

 be sure. The moorhen, when disturbed by man or dog, sometimes takes wing, some- 

 times dives; but after diving, especially if pursued by a dog, it seldom comes to the sur- 

 face again, but remains submerged, with merely its beak thrust out for the purpose of 

 respiration. And it is impossible to say which of the two modes of escape is most fre- 

 quently adopted. The same bird,f even on the same day, will sometimes dive and 

 sometimes fly away. I mean that on visiting a nest in the morning, the bird has ta- 

 ken flight — visiting the same nest a few hours after, the bird dived. But disturb a 

 moorhen on the water, at some little distance from the shelter of reeds, rushes or weeds, 

 and I think it will be always found to fly and not to dive ; whereas, on the contrary, 

 the dabchick will always dive and not fly, under the same circumstances. Now what- 

 ever be the relative powers of flight of these birds, there can be no comparison between 

 their powers of diving. To the moorhen the act of diving is, as we should be led to 

 expect, laborious : and if the bird had far to go for shelter, it would soon be exhausted. 

 But, all-fitted as the grebe is by Nature for subaqueous motion, diving is to it but 

 sport, and is achieved with ease and rapidity, and without fatigue. It is on this 

 account that I think — as I have intimated in the following article — that the dab- 

 chick , supposing it to have free scope for diving, must be " very hard pressed indeed " 

 before it will try to conceal itself, as does the moorhen, by the submersion of its body. 

 Mr. Selby mentions their doing so ; — but under what circumstances ? They were in 

 pools left by the receding tide, and of small dimensions, in which their diving powers 

 were of no use to them, as they found by experience on making the attempt : they had 

 then the choice of flying away or hiding themselves; so not being very much addicted 

 to the former — their spring vagaries being only the exception — they chose the latter. 

 Again, when beating the rushes and flags by the side of the " fleets " on the marshes, 

 I have often seen the dabchick come up in the middle of the fleet and dive again im- 

 mediately. The dogs had so far alarmed him, that he thought it safer to leave the 

 shelter of the rushes ; and he did so by diving, whether across, or up or down the fleet. 

 The adult coots and moorhens, and the well-fledged young ducks, when similarly alarm- 

 ed, took wing : the young coots and moorhens and the half-feathered ducklings skulked 

 in the covert, and were in divers instances caught by the dogs. But it is somewhat 

 remarkable that I never witnessed the capture of a dabchick, young or old, on these 



* Sec Montagu's ' Ornithological Dictionary,' article Gallinulc. 

 f Of course when hard pressed they try both means. 



