water-hens

In shaded nooks beneath the boughs, the capybaras, rabbits as large as sheep, went paddling sleepily round and round, thrusting up their unwieldy heads among the blooms of the blue water-lilies; while black and purple water-hens ran up and down upon the rafts of floating leaves.

Westward Ho! 2007

On the water there are a great many ducks, cranes, and water-hens.

The Journals of John McDouall Stuart 2007

On the shores and on the islets, strutted wild ducks, pelicans, water-hens, red-beaks, philedons, furnished with a tongue like a brush, and one or two specimens of the splendid menura, the tail of which expands gracefully like a lyre.

The Mysterious Island 2005

On the shores and on the islets, strutted wild ducks, pelicans, water-hens, red-beaks, philedons, furnished with a tongue like a brush, and one or two specimens of the splendid menura, the tail of which expands gracefully like a lyre.

The Mysterious Island 2005

Animal life became somewhat less rare; we saw sandpipers, hawks, white and black fish-eagles, and long-legged water-hens, here supposed to give excellent sport.

Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo 2003

Let us now look out for the coots and water-hens, which love to dabble amongst the weeds of these pools, and to hide amongst the hedges and bulrushes that so thickly skirt them.

Country Walks of a Naturalist with His Children W. Houghton

Let us go on the moors again, and watch the coots and water-hens in the reedy pools near the aqueduct.

Country Walks of a Naturalist with His Children W. Houghton

What voracious fish they are; they will often take young ducks, water-hens and coots, and will sometimes try to swallow a fish much too large for their throats.

Country Walks of a Naturalist with His Children W. Houghton

Inquisitive and faint-hearted fiddler-crabs are darting in and out of their holes in the mud: an alligator now and then shows a hint of a head above the water of the creek, along whose banks walk daintily and proudly egrets and herons robed in white, and from the reeds of which myriads of water-hens send up a deafening chatter.

Lippincott's Magazine, Vol. 26, August, 1880 of Popular Literature and Science Various

I never saw a coot dive; and think it seldom does; water-hens, every one knows, are frequent divers.

Country Walks of a Naturalist with His Children W. Houghton