BY THE WAYSIDE 
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handsome animal houses, there were 
clumps of .flowering shrubs and beds of 
luxuriant blossoms in lavish abundance 
and benches in all the pleasant nooks 
for visitors to rest upon. io |t was, in¬ 
deed, a most enticing place, and I never 
tired of wandering from one attractive 
spot to another and watching the be¬ 
havior of the strange two-footed and 
four-footed inhabitants brought from 
various quarters of the earth. 
One day A stood before a big compart¬ 
ment prepared for swimming and wad¬ 
ing birds. There must have been a 
O »■ • T # 
hundred or more altogether, of different 
specie's, all talking or squawking at 
<>nce, and such a clamor you never heard. 
There were Gulls, Terns, Herons, Ducks, 
lk Oyster-catchers, Dunlins, and many, 
many others, swimming, flying, feeding, 
nesting, doing every sort of thing in 
short, which birds are wont to do. 
There was a huge pile of rocks in the 
background, a big pool in the middle, a 
j sandy shore line and trees and weeds 
for them to flit about in. 
Suddenly a couple of moor hens got 
into a vicious squabble and came dash¬ 
ing into the pool with a tremendous 
| commotion. They sat up on their tails 
in the water and struck at each other 
with their feet in the fiercest manner. 
Growing more and more enraged, they 
would rise into the air several feet and 
claw each other wildly.” Then back to 
jj the water, battling as hard as ever. 
It was a curious sight and I gazed in as¬ 
tonishment. I have sebn birds fight 
desperately before, but never in this 
queer fashion, in the water- and out 
again. 
The combat continued a surprising 
time when down from the rocks swooped 
four or five other moor hens and fell 
upon these two with much cackling, 
which meant, safe to say- Here you ! 
J Stop this fighting. It has gone on long- 
enough. Quit, quit!” And the-fight- 
; ers parted, one landing near me, still in 
a highly belligerent state. 1 though, ap¬ 
parently; he was getting worsted in the 
fray, and the other remaining in the 
water. They were plucky birds, for th« 
one on shore, after an excited spurt at 
running, plunged in to claw his oppon¬ 
ent with undiminished fury. Their 
quarrel gradually waned upon this sec¬ 
ond encounter, and I shall never know 
what it was all about. 
The moor hen, of Europe is a cousin 
of our mud hen or American coot, and 
has quite the same habits, but I read in 
Hudson’s ornithology, that the young 
birds of the first brood will sometimes 
help the parents build a nest for the 
second brood and even help rear the 
1 ittle young ones when they are hatched. 
It is a remarkable case of filial devot ion 
in bird history. 
— Mr.s. Sara A. Hubbard. 
The Herring Gull. 
All through the Great Lakes region 
the Herring Gull is the first of the large 
water birds to attract attention. Its 
large size, measuring four and one-half 
feet between its outstretched black- 
tipped wings, its pearly-white body 
covered with a mantle of pale blue, its 
bright yellow bill, together with its 
graceful flight, demands attention from 
bird-lover and foe alike. A number of 
years ago, before the islands of Lake 
Superior were pre-empted by summer 
cottages, I visited the breeding place of 
a large colony situated on Gull Rocks, 
which is the last outcropping of the ma¬ 
rine ridge which forms Isle Kovale to 
the west. We were dropped over the 
side of a small steamer.into a row boat, 
and made our landing dndhe ice-covered 
rocks of Isle Royale late iff May, and 
the Finnlander fishermen took us in 
their sail boat to the group of rocks 
forming the island, where we were left 
alone with the gulls all day while they 
hauled and reset their nets miles away. 
A.s we approached the island a few 
pioneers came out to meet us, while the 
rocks were co verted with little white 
specks, so small did the birds appear in 
