moor-hens

The moor-hens came back again, and a fish jumped at a fly.

The Mystery of the Spiteful Letters Blyton, Enid, 1898?-1968 1966

A swan came swimming by, and two moor-hens chugged across the water, their heads bobbing like clockwork.

The Mystery of the Spiteful Letters Blyton, Enid, 1898?-1968 1966

Some moor-hens chugged across it quickly, disappearing under the water when they saw the children.

Five On A Hike Together Blyton, Enid, 1898?-1968 1951

"We want to watch the moor-hens, you see, " put in Anne, suddenly seeing a moor-hen on the water.

Five On A Hike Together Blyton, Enid, 1898?-1968 1951

There are plenty of moor-hens or water-hens in these reedy pools.

Country Walks of a Naturalist with His Children W. Houghton

Coming back, where the water lay in shadow beneath a larchwood which as yet had not wholly lost its vivid vernal green, he disturbed the paddling moor-hens and put up a mallard from a clump of swaying reeds.

Vane of the Timberlands Harold Bindloss 1905

Down by the water-edge of the Penn ponds they strayed, where moor-hens scuttled out of rhododendron bushes that overhung the lake, and hurried across the surface of the water, half swimming, half flying, for the shelter of some securer retreat.

Michael 1903

It was as if she knew: she said good-bye to the lake and the jolly moor-hens and the grass.

Michael 1903

Dragon-flies wheeling and clashing were the only things at work, except the moor-hens and a big Red Admiral who flapped down out of the sunshine for a drink.

Puck of Pook’s Hill Rudyard Kipling 1900

Among moor-hens and great-crested grebes sometimes what Selous terms "functional hermaphroditism" occurs and the females play the part of the male toward their male companions, and then repeat the sexual act with a reversion to the normal order, the whole to the satisfaction of both parties.

Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 3 Analysis of the Sexual Impulse; Love and Pain; The Sexual Impulse in Women Havelock Ellis 1899