18 
moorhen's nest in a tree. 
some of tlie osiers which surround the island, I hegan my 
accustomed examination : the first ohject that attracted my 
attention was a lot of dry rushes, flags, reeds, &c., enough 
to fill a couple of hushel haskets. This mass was lodged 
ah out twenty feet from the ground, in a spruce fir tree, 
and looked for all the world as if it had been pitched there 
with a hay-fork. I mounted instantly, thinking of herons, 
eagles, and a variety of other wonders : just as my head 
reached the nest, flap, flap, out came a Moorhen, and, 
dropping to the water, made off in a direct line along its 
surface, dip-dip-dip-dipping with its toes (they do this just 
to cool theii' toes, I have often conjectured), and was at 
last lost in the rushes of a distant bank, leaving an evan- 
escent track along the water, like that occasioned by a 
stone which has been skilfully thrown to make ducks 
and drakes." The nest contained seven eggs, warm as a 
toast. The situation was a very odd one for a moorhen's 
nest ; but there was a reason for it : the rising of the water 
in the pond frequently flooded the banks of the island, and 
as I had before witnessed, had destroyed several broods by 
immersion.* 
* I have frequently had an opportunity of ohserviug a peculiar fact with re- 
gard to the moorhen, to which an explanation was I believe first offered by the 
Rev. J. C. Atkinson, at page 767 of the ' Zoologist.' I allude to the building 
of supplementary nests, or nests not designed for the usual office of incubation : 
these nests are generally manufactured about hatching time, and it has been 
conjectured their object is to receive part of the young ones when they have be- 
come too large to be accommodated in the old nest : so that some are supposed 
to use one nest and some the other. This idea seems, however, to require con- 
firmation, more especially as supplementary nests, or nests not devoted to incu- 
bation, are by no means of uncommon occurrence. I have known the common 
wren build at all times of the year, and employ an autumn-built nest as a house 
of nightly resort throughout the winter : indeed, boys at school are perfectly 
familiar with these nests, and designate them ' cocks' nests,' believing they are 
tenanted only by the male wrens : but, quite independently of any apparent 
