A GOOD DIVER. 
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margins. They inhabit meadows, marshes, and swampy- 
places covered with weeds, sedges, and other strong herbage. 
They feed on worms, mollusca, insects, and seeds chiefly 
of the grasses, in search of which they make excursions 
into the neighbouring meadows. They swim and dive with 
ease, and when in danger conceal themselves by diving and 
rising under a bank, or merely projecting their heads under 
cover of the herbage. 
They nestle on the ground among the reeds, or on a tuft 
of dry ground, or a decayed tree, forming a bulky nest of 
reeds, straw, or similar materials. The eggs are five or more 
in number, dull white, or yellowish, spotted or speckled 
with dusky. The following is Macgillivray's description of 
the above-named species: — 
The Water-hen is found in all parts of Scotland and England that 
are adapted to its nature. It frequents marshy places, pools, lakes, 
still streams, mill-dams, and even ditches, where it searches for food 
chiefly among the reeds and other aquatic plants along the shores. 
It swims with great ease and elegance, sitting lightly on the water, 
with its neck erect, and its tail obliquely raised. It dives with equal 
facility, and in travelhng among the reeds, sedges, and other aquatic 
plants, makes its way with surprising ease, owing to the compression 
of its body, and its elongated toes. When surprised in a narrow stream 
or ditch, it usually dives, and conceals itself among the plants or 
heneath the banks, often remaining for a long time submerged, with 
