The Waterhen is rather larger than the Partridge; it has longer legs, of a green colour, and much longer toes. It has a small growth on the wings like a spur. On the brow is a bare crescent-shaped red patch, the pupil of the eye is carmine; neck and the whole of the mantle dark, greenish-olive brown; the other parts of the body slate colour, the inside of the lower tail-cover being of a darker shade, with a broad yellowish white border. The feathers on the edge of the wings are tipped with white, forming a beautiful white line, to the front of the wings. The bill is green, red at the base. The nest is nearly always placed in dry sedge-bushes on the edge of the water; the dry grass serves for litter. The clutch consists of ten eggs, which have a pale yellowish red ground speckled with violet and reddish-brown. [Illustration: THE COMMON TERN.] THE COMMON TERN. (_Sterna fluviatilis._) This birds nests in companies, in grassy places near a river bank, where a nest, without any foundation, is made, being a flat hollow in the ground. In this it lays two or three eggs of a clay-or brownish-yellow colour, speckled with violet-grey and brown. The Tern is a real ornament to our large rivers and lakes, with its guileless nature and its fine swinging flight. If it were to disappear we should lose one of the joys and beauties of life. All day long it flies over the water, with only short intervals of rest which it takes on a gravel heap or a hurdle, with neck drawn in and pointed upwards, only turning its head now and then to look at the water. It constantly flies at the same height, and as soon as its prey comes to the surface of the water it spreads its tail stiffly downwards, and hovers, beating with its wings, and gazing fixedly on the spot where the victim showed itself. Then, suddenly, it drops like a stone, with a loud splash, into the water. It has then secured its booty, usually a small fish. Its usual voice sounds like “_Kriey_”; sometimes, when in trouble, it utters a light “_Kek_” or “_Krek_.” It is not common enough in Hungary to do much mischief. * * * * *