plants as grow by the margins of ftrcams ; during the breeding 

 feafon, the male bird may frequently be heard to utter a fhrill 

 chatter, the ufual note at other feafons is a whittle quickly 

 repeated. 



In the autumn they quit their inland retreats, and but few, 

 and thofe late-hatched' birds, are to be met with from the 

 middle of Auguft to the end of September, after which they 

 return to their ufual haunts; they are faid at that feafon to 

 frequent the fea-fhores, and to feed on fhrimps. Of this wc 

 have no doubt, that, if at that feafon they frequent the mores of 

 the fea, it is to affift in deftroying the myriads of marine infects 

 or fmall mell-fim, brought into life by the heat of fummer, 

 and which, but for their timely aid, in conjun&ion with 

 other fpecies, impelled by the fame inftincl:, might tend to 

 deftroy the due equilibrium between the aqueous and terrene 

 part of animated nature ; fuch are the wife precautions 

 obferved by an unerring providence, to prevent an injurious 

 increafe in any of its parts, to the injury or deftru£Uon of the 

 beautiful order of the whole. 



This fpecies is fuppofed to be very long lived, as one pair 

 have been known to refort to the fame fpot for more than 

 twenty years, where they regularly breed ; they feem not to 

 be very eafily made to quit their haunts, as when their nefts 

 have been deftroyed, they have returned time after time to 

 rebuild them ; they neft almoft always on the fame fpot for 

 many years in fucceffion. 



Our drawing was made for William Curtis, who had 

 a number of thefe birds in a pond, in his late botanic garden, 

 Lambeth Marlh. 



