Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/838

Rh 808 M O O M O O volume of this was published early in 1 830, and the second was ready by the end of the same year. In 1831 he com pleted a memoir of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, for which he had been collecting materials for some time. Moore s biographies call for no comment, except that they were faithful and conscientious pieces of work. He spent much industry in the collection of characteristic anecdotes, for which his position in society gave him exceptional opportunity. His connexion with the burning of Byron s autobiography is too complicated a question to be dis cussed here. His own version of the circumstances is given in his diary for May 1824. It was a misfortune for the comfort of the last twenty years of Moore s life that he allowed himself to be drawn into a project for writing the &quot;History of Ireland&quot; in Lardner s Cyclopaedia. Scott and Mackintosh scribbled off the companion volumes on Scotland and England with very little trouble, but Moore had neither their historical training nor their despatch in writing. Laborious con scientiousness and indecision are a fatal combination for a man who undertakes a new kind of task late in life. The history sat like a nightmare on Moore for fifteen years, and after all was left unfinished on the melancholy collapse of his powers in 1845. From the time that he burdened himself with it Moore did very little else, beyond a few occasional squibs and songs, the last flashes of his genius, and the Travels of an Irish Gentleman in Search of a Religion, although he had tempting offers of more lucrative and, it might have been thought, more congenial work. Moore s character had a deeper manliness and sincerity than he often gets credit for ; and his tenacious persistence in this his last task was probably due to an honourable ambition to connect himself as a benefactor with the history of his country, by opening the eyes of the English people to the misgovernment of Ireland. It was a misjudgment altogether ; the light irony of Captain Rock was much more effective than the minute carefully- weighed details of the history. Moore s last years were harassed by the weakness and misconduct of his sons, and by pecuniary embarrassments. An annual pension of 300 was conferred upon him in 1833, and he had always received large sums for his work ; but, while waiting for the sinecure which never came, he had contracted an unfortunate habit of drawing upon his publishers in advance. After the death of his last child in 1845, Moore became a total wreck, but he lingered on till 26th February 1852. The diary, which he seems to have kept chiefly that it might be the means of making some provision for his wife, and which contains so many touching expressions of his affection for her, was edited by Lord John Russell with his letters and a fragment of autobiography in 1853- 56. The charge of vanity has often been brought against this diary from the writer s industry in recording many of the compliments paid him by distinguished personages and public assemblies. It is only vanity that is annoyed by the display of vanity in others. (w. M.) MOOR-HEN, 1 the name by which a bird, often called Water-hen and sometimes Gallinule, is most commonly known in England. An earlier name was Moat-hen, which was appropriate in the days when a moat was the ordinary adjunct of most considerable houses in the country. It is the Gallinula chloropus of ornithologists, and almost too well known to need description. About the size of a small Bantam-hen, but with the body much compressed (as is usual with members of the Family Rallidx, to which it belongs), its plumage above is of a deep olive-brown, so dark as to appear black at a short distance, and beneath 1 Not to be confounded with &quot; Moor-cock &quot; or &quot; Moor-fowl,&quot; names formerly in general use for tlie Red Grouse (vol. xi. 221). iron-grey, relieved by some white stripes on the flanks, with the lower tail-coverts of pure white, these last being very conspicuous as. the bird swims. A scarlet frontlet, especially bright in the spring of the year, and a red garter on the tibia of the male render him very showy. Though often frequenting the neighbourhood of man, the Moor hen seems unable to overcome the inherent stealthy habits of the Rallidse, and hastens to hide itself on the least alarm ; but under exceptional circumstances it may be induced to feed, yet always suspiciously, with tame ducks and poultry. It appears to take wing with difficulty, and may be often caught by an active dog ; but, in reality, it is capable of sustained flight, its longer excursions being chiefly performed by night, when the peculiar call-note it utters is frequently heard as the bird, itself invisible in the darkness, passes overhead. The nest is a mass of flags, reeds, or other aquatic plants, often arranged with much neatness, almost always near the water s edge, where a clump of rushes is generally chosen ; but should a mill-dam, sluice-gate, or boat-house afford a favourable site, advan tage will be taken of it, and not unfrequently the bough of a tree at some height from the ground will furnish the place for a cradle. The eggs, from seven to eleven in number, resemble those of the COOT (vol. vi. p. 341), but are smaller, lighter, and brighter in colour, with spots or blotches of reddish-brown. In winter, when the inland waters are frozen, the majority of Moor-hens betake themselves to the tidal rivers, and many must leave the country entirely, though a few seem always able to maintain their existence however hard be the frost. The common Moor-hen is extensively spread throughout the Old World, being found also at the Cape of Good Hope, in India, and in Japan. In America it is represented by a very closely-allied form, G. galeata, so called from its rather larger frontal helm, and in Australia by another, G. tenebrosa, which generally wants the white flank-markings. Both closely resemble G. chlor opus in general habits, as does also the G. pyrrhorrhoa of Madagascar, which has the lower tail-coverts buff instead of white. Celebes and Amboyna possess a smaller cognate species, G. h&matopus, with red legs ; tropical Africa has the smallest of all, G. anrjulata ; and some more that have been recognized as distinct are also found in other more or less isolated localities. One of the most remarkable of these is the G. nesiotis of Tristan da Cunha, 2 which has wholly lost the power of flight concomitantly with the shortening of its wings and a considerable modification of its external apparatus, as well as a strengthening of its pelvic girdle and legs. 3 A more extreme development in this direction appears to be exhibited by the singular Habroptila ivallacii of Jilolo, 4 and to some extent by the Pareudiastes pacificus of Samoa, 5 but at present little is known of either. Of other forms, such as the common Gallinula (Erythra] phoenicura, and Gallirex cristata of India, as well as the South-American species classed in the genus Porphyriops, there is not room to speak ; but mention should be made of the remarkable Australian genus Tribonyx, containing three species, 6 which seem to be more terrestrial than aquatic in their haunts and habits. Allied to all these is the genus Porphyrio, including the bird so named by classical writers, and perhaps a dozen other species often called Sultanas and Purple Water- hens, for they all have a plumage of deep blue, some becoming violet, green, or black in parts, but preserving the white lower tail-coverts, so generally characteristic a Proc. Zool. Society, 1861, p. 260, pi. xxx. 3 A somewhat intermediate form seems to be presented by the Moor-hen of the island of St Denis, to the north of Madagascar (Proc. Zool. Society, 1867, p. 1036), hitherto uudescribed. 4 Op. cit., 1860, p. 365, pi. clxxii. 5 f&amp;gt;. clt., 1871, p. 25, pi. ii. 6 Ann. Nat. History, ser. 3, xx. p. 123.