9. 
MOORHEN. 
On first leaving the egg, the downy Moor-ehick exhibits most eonspieuous red and bright blue tints 
about the head ; as these bright shades are for the most part confined to the skin, they rapidly fade after 
death. In order to give a good idea of the appearance presented by the juvenile during life, a coloured sketch 
ought to be taken from a living specimen. 
The young during their first autumn may readily be distinguished from the adults by the brown and 
grey tinges of the plumage on the back and breast being less pure, a dirty white also shows on the lower 
portion of the breast and belly. Beak a dull olive-brown, with a green tinge ; legs and feet a dull greenish 
yellow ; claws horn-tint. 
Though almost every writer on British birds with whom I am acquainted gives the title of Dabchick 
to the Little Grebe, this name is invariably bestowed on the Moorhen by the country people in the east of 
Sussex. 
