326 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIUE 



pond that I know of in our county, whose banks or 

 surface afford any covert, that is not frequented by 

 one pair or more of these birds as long as their 

 waters remain unfrozen. In sharp frosts we very 

 often find Waterhens in our woods and plantations, 

 no doubt attracted thither by the corn laid for the 

 Pheasants. We have always protected the Waterhens 

 in the neighbourhood of Lilford ; but to give some 

 idea of their abundance with us, I may mention that 

 a ruthless neighbour of ours, having met with no 

 Snipes or Wild Ducks in a long walk during a severe 

 frost some few years ago, turned his attention to 

 these unfortunate birds, and shot upwards of one 

 hundred of them in a very short time. 



I consider the flesh of the breast of this bird 

 remarkably good food, and have seldom found any- 

 one to disagree with me in this view, but should 

 never think of shooting a Moorhen for the table if I 

 could meet with more legitimate prey in the shape of 

 Snipes or Wildfowl properly so called. These birds 

 become very tame when unmolested, and are a very 

 great ornament to our waters, but we cannot acquit 

 them of the charge of a very pugnacious and destructive 

 tendency amongst their own and other species of 

 birds, and they are most certainly bad neighbours for 

 young Pheasants and Partridges, as they not only 

 consume a good deal of the food intended for game 

 birds, but will now and then capture and devour the 

 birds themselves. In our rambles about our meadows 

 in pursuit of Snipes, we used very frequently to find 

 the frv^sh remains of Waterhens, the greater part of 

 which had been devoured, as we then thought, by 

 some bird of prey ; but though the Sparrow-Hawk is 

 rather too common with us, his numbers are hardly 



