128 BRITISH BIRDS. 
WATER HEN. 
COMMON GALINULE, OR MOOR HEN. 
t^FiiTica chhropuSf Lin. — La Poule d* Eau.^ BufF. ) 
The weight of this bird varies from ten and a half 
to fifteen ounces : the length from the tip of the beak 
to the end of the tail is about fourteen inches, the 
breadth twenty-two : the bill is rather more than 
an inch long, of a greenifh yellow at the tip, and 
reddifh towards the bafe, whence a fmgular kind of 
horny or membraneous fubftance fhields the fore- 
head as far as the eyes : this appendage to the bill 
is as red as fealing wax in the bi;eeding feafon \ at 
other times it varies or fades into a white colour. 
The head is fmall and black, except a white Ipot 
