OBSERVED IN HERTFORDSHIRE IN 1910. 281 
Aldenham. Mr. Headley also reports one pair only from the 
Haileybury district. 
Spotted Crake (Porzema maruetta). —Mr. A. E. Gfibbs reports 
that a male of this species was killed against the telegraph wires 
near St. Albans on September 7th, and is now in the County 
Museum. There are previous records of this species for the 
county, though, so far as I can ascertain, the last one was 
reported in August, 1896. 
Water-Bail (Pallus aquations ).—I have only seen a bird of 
this species once during the year, this being by the river-side 
near Hamper Mill on November 27th. 
Moor-hen (Gallinula chloropus ).—On April 14th I disturbed 
a bird from her nest in Moor Park, and was surprised to see 
a brood of young follow their parent out from the nest into the 
water. Even allowing for the fact that the nest was in an 
exceptionally well-sheltered situation, being right underneath 
the drooping branches of a rhododendron growing by the water¬ 
side, the date is an exceptionally early one. During this winter 
I have noticed on three occasions an interesting change of habit 
in this species. On December 25th I disturbed a couple of 
resting (as it was in the middle of the day I cannot say 
roosting) moor-hens from the heart of a thick, tangled clump of 
closely-grown hawthorn bushes growing by the river-side, and 
it was plain that the birds found very great difficulty indeed in 
suddenly extricating themselves from the central parts of their 
retreat. The noise and commotion they made in plunging and 
floundering their way out were very extraordinary, and to 
a gunner they would have fallen easy victims owing to the 
length of time it took them to work their way through the twigs 
and branches. When once out, they had, naturally, to trust 
entirely to their wings as a means of escape—a practice the water- 
hen does not always adopt. On another occasion I similarly 
disturbed a water-hen from the depths of a large spreading 
yew-tree growing in a wood by the water-side. This tree was 
perhaps 25 feet to 30 feet in height, and again the disturbance 
and commotion the bird had to make in trying to get through 
the foliage and branches of the tree were extraordinary; so much 
so, indeed, that I half expected to see that the bird which was 
causing it was a heron. Eventually the moor-hen came out from 
the top of the tree, and then flew across and settled, again near 
the top of another yew-tree of about similar height not more 
than 130 yards away. I nearly always find one or two nests of 
this species built in low bushes or trees near the water, but the 
habit I am now describing is of quite a different kind, for on 
each occasion the birds were seen in the situation described 
(1) in the winter-time, (2) in the middle of the day. The only 
explanation I can give lies in the fact that just before the time 
at which I saw them, the river-valley, with its adjacent fields 
and woods, had been repeatedly flooded, and I suppose that 
because of their having been driven from their usual haunts 
