BIRDS 345 



the small dubs or pools of water on our flows, you are often half 

 startled by an unpremeditated splash. Next moment a frightened 

 Moorhen is sure to paddle across the bit of open water, take 

 wing, and fly away, deserting for the nonce the nest which 

 lies at the water edge, half hidden by tussocks of sedge, — a slight 

 nest withal, or rather a hollow platform of dry reeds, lined with 

 finer stems, containing a few eggs, still warm to the touch. 

 Though generally reckoned a stationary species, the Moorhen 

 is migratory to a considerable extent. Mr. W. Duckworth 

 once found Monkhill Lough fairly alive with Moorhens, ap- 

 parently newly arrived. I have also found the remains of 

 Moorhens washed up on the Sol way Firth after heavy gales, as 

 though the birds had been blown out from land and perished 

 at sea. 



COMMON COOT. 



Fulica atra, L. 



A few pairs of Coots breed on many of our ponds at Crofton, 

 at Edenhall, and on some of the larger sheets of water — Der- 

 wentwater, for example. The males are very combative in 

 spring, and the determination with which they strike at and 

 buffet their rivals in the water, sometimes trying to drown their 

 opponents, confers a special charm upon the sedge beds they 

 favour ; they are quite as plucky and mettlesome as Gamecocks. 

 When once their passions have been quickened into life by the 

 approach of the season of love, they spar in real earnest, and 

 are always ready to resent the intrusion of a stranger. They are 

 devoted guardians to their mates when the latter are incubating 

 on the flag-piled nest. Though they cannot save their young 

 from the voracious maw of hungry Pike, they watch over 

 their interests with great affection. Young Coots instinctively 

 hide up in cover if danger threatens. On the 12th of August 

 1889 we disturbed two old Coots on the edge of Monkhill 

 Lough. They flew off disconcerted, leaving behind two tiny 

 chicks, covered with black down. These little fellows swam 

 hurriedly into cover, pausing as soon as they had gained the 

 shelter of the yellow water-lilies, across the leaves of which they 

 squatted in coy alarm. In a minute or two one of them dived, 



