828 
RALLIDiE. 
made a nest among the grass on the bank, without using any 
sticks in its construction, though these were abundant closely 
around. The nest was partially lined with dead leaves of the 
laurel : the brood was brought out in safety. The old bird took 
the young under her wings (especially in the evening), as a hen 
does her chickens, concealing them in the same manner from view. 
There was now another nest made, to which the parent would 
call her brood, and remain in it with them for some time. The 
waterhens never covered their eggs on leaving the various nests 
at Wolfhill, though, according to the observations of Mr. Selby, 
such is the habit of the bird.* Their not doing so, however, at 
this locality, is only another proof of their intelligence. We 
have already seen that when a pair lost their eggs from these 
being overflowed by water, they made a nest close by on the 
firm-set earth,'*'’ and that, instead of the usual course, when the 
nest is built about water, of elevating it on a mound of sticks, 
dispensing altogether with them, though they were plentiful 
around : — we now see them departing from the ordinary habit of 
covering the eggs, in a locality w^here they found themselves pro- 
tected and knew they had no enemies to fear. 
Some birds rear two or three broods in the same nest, and even 
return year after year to it. On the other hand, the water- 
hen is not always content with a single nest for one brood, but 
will make a second one or raft, and sometimes several rafts for it : 
these, however, being slightly made, are soon constructed. A 
friend, one evening, having laid a branch of a tree beside his 
pond, was surprised the next morning by seeing one of these 
nests not only completed on it, but the old bird and her young 
in possession, although the nest in which the brood was brought 
out was at the time perfectly good. A pair of these birds which 
frequented another pond near Belfast, made several rafts for their 
young, though the nest remained uninjured. Once at this pond, 
where a pair only breeds, a nest containing five or six eggs was 
inundated, and entirely covered with water for about seven hours, 
when it w^as feared that the vitality of the eggs would be destroyed ; 
* Vol. ii. p. 190. 
