122 
THE WATER-HEN. 
concealment and warmth. A person, fishing on the 
banks of the Thames, when passing a willow-bed, 
heard a slight rustling motion: suspecting it to pro- 
ceed from some water-bird, he kneeled down, and 
remained perfectly quiet, when the noise ceased. 
On rising, and looking about, he saw a Water-Hen 
busily employed in collecting dry rushes and flags, 
and laying them one by one over her eggs, deposited 
in one of these bare nests close beside her. It was 
not long before she had completely hidden them; 
and then, looking round with a cautious glance, not 
aware that her motions were observed, softly and 
silently glided away amongst the reeds, and dis- 
appeared. On a nearer approach, strange to say, the 
nest was with difficulty found, and no one, who had 
not previously ascertained its existence was there- 
abouts, could possibly have discovered it. 
We have said that they usually build either upon 
a level with, or very little raised above the water, 
but not invariably so, — for, although almost entirely 
confined to the water, as their abiding as well as 
feeding-place, they will not only perch on trees 
when roosting, but even build their nests at a con- 
siderable elevation above the ground. An instance 
of this occurred in Surrey, where the attention of a 
person, who had landed upon an island in the middle 
of a large pond, was drawn to a mass of dry rushes, 
flags, and reeds, strangely heaped together, about 
twenty feet above the ground, in a spruce-fir tree. 
Curiosity induced him to climb up, — when, to his 
surprise, out crept a Water-Hen, which dropped into 
the pond, and made off towards the shore. 
But it is not only in their instinctive attachments 
