Although incapable of either fast flight or rising to great elevations, the Water Hen shows considerable address in escaping from the sportsman's gun. When pressed very closely, they take to the water, in which they are expert swimmers and divers: under the water they go, to reappear on the surface many yards away, where they only show themselves above for a moment to breathe, avoiding flight until every cause of fear is removed. In some countries they remain throughout the year; in others, on the contrary, they are migratory. When the latter is the case, they travel sometimes on foot, sometimes by swimming, and sometimes on the wing; following the same route, however, year after year, and always returning with constancy to the spot where they made their first nest. The eggs are seven or eight in number. During incubation the male and female occupy the nest alternately. Should any intruder alarm them, they never fail, before leaving the nest, to cover up their cherished treasures with grass or other material, so as to keep them warm and hidden from the voracity of their watchful enemy, the Crow. Immediately after the young are hatched they leave the nest to follow their mother, and are very soon able to supply their own wants. Their only covering at first is a scanty and coarse down; but they run rapidly, and seem almost instinctively to swim and dive and conceal themselves at the slightest appearance of danger. Young Water Hens, however, are exposed to accident from the flooding of streams, and consequent submersion of the nests; and it is probably by way of compensation for this that nature has made them so prolific, for frequently they rear three broods per annum. The Common Water Hen (Fig. 117) is a native of Europe; it is found in France, England, Italy, Germany, and Holland. The Slate-coloured Water Hen is a native of Java. [Illustration: Fig. 117.--Common Water Hen (_Gallinula chloropus_, Sw.).] [Illustration: Fig. 118.--Sultana Fowl (_Pollo sultana_, Sw.).] The Purple Water Hen (_Porphyrio hyacinthus_, Temminck), or Sultana Fowl (Fig. 118), is peculiarly characteristic of Macrodactyles, and might be defined as an exaggeration of the Water Hen. Its bill is thicker and more robust, the frontal plate on the forehead is more extended, the toes are longer, but its habits are very nearly the same. It is, however, less exclusively aquatic, and its favourite food is the seeds of the cereals and aquatic plants, and fruits: it occasionally, however, feeds on mollusks and small fishes. When eating, it stands on one foot, and uses the other as a hand in order to convey the food to its beak.