IN FEATHERS AND FUR. 97 
One of the family — the purple water-hen — wears a dark blue 
dress, and it's funny to see her eat. She isn't so vulgar as to 
swallow her food whole; by no means ! She takes it in one foot 
and eats it daintily, as, perhaps, you have seen a parrot do, standing 
steadily on the other foot meanwhile. 
This industrious little mother isn't satisfied to raise one brood, 
as our hens are. The chicks need her care but a short time, and 
she often raises three families in a year. 
This is a very shy family, and you'd have to watch a long 
time before you would see them all out, for they are apt to hide 
behind the broad leaves of the water-lily, or among the weeds on 
the edge of the stream, in the daytime, and only come out morning 
and evening to frolic in the water. 
When pursued by hunters, they dive and come up a long way 
off, out of the way of the enemy. 
They are about as large as our hens, and the big books that 
tell all about these curious little creatures, say that they are migra- 
tory. That means that they emigrate to a warmer climate in the 
winter. In some places, however, they stay all the year round. 
But they spend neither their summers nor winters with us, for 
they are found only in Europe. 
The Water-Hen is very common in England, where it is easily 
tamed and induced to live in the poultry yard. But it is apt to do 
mischief in the garden, for it eats currants, and strawberries, and 
peas, and the leaves of cabbages, and of course is not very popular 
with gardeners. 
