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Small aquatic rail
Answer for the clue "Small aquatic rail ", 7 letters:
moorhen
Alternative clues for the word moorhen
Word definitions for moorhen in dictionaries
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Word definitions in The Collaborative International Dictionary
moorhen \moorhen\ n. (Zo["o]l.) A black gallinule ( Gallinula chloropus ) that inhabits ponds and lakes. Syn: Gallinula chloropus . The female of the moor fowl ; the moor hen .
Wiktionary
Word definitions in Wiktionary
n. 1 Any of various medium-sized water birds of the genus ''Gallinula'', of the rail family, that feed in open water margins. 2 (context British English) A female red grouse, (taxlink Lagopus lagopus scotica subspecies noshow=1).
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Word definitions in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
noun EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS ▪ Being semi-aquatic, they are able to catch waterfowl such as mallards and moorhens on the surface. ▪ Keep an eye out for large swans, herons and ducks, moorhens and kingfishers. ▪ Marion Petrie, of the University of East Anglia, ...
Usage examples of moorhen.
Near the large hearth in the middle of the flagged floor, a young boy turned a brace of moorhens on a spit.
This year was happy in unusual numbers of birds (nesting-time had been particularly favourable) and Stephen and Brigid wandered about the smooth hay-meadows, by the standing corn, and along the banks, he telling her the names of countless insects, many, many birds - kingfishers, dippers, dabchicks, and the occasional teal: coots and moorhens, of course - as well as his particular favourites, henharrier, sparrowhawk and kestrel and once a single splendid peregrine, a falcon clipping her way not much above head-height with effortless speed.
Otters, kingfishers, dabchicks, moorhens, all of them about all day long and always wanting you to do something – as if a fellow had no business of his own to attend to!
He now saw (what had, indeed, been going on for some time) that there was a ceaseless stream of waterfowl, mallards, ducks, coots, moorhens, and lesser grebes coming towards him, swimming to the westward.
Angling and disputing for positions at her feet and over various parts of her accommodating body were a whitethroat, a fieldfare, a willowwren, a nuthatch, a tree-pipit, a sand martin, a red-backed shrike, a goldfinch, a yellow bunting, two jays, a greater spotted woodpecker, three moorhens (on her lap with a mallard, a woodcock, and a curlew), a wagtail, four missel thrushes, six blackbirds, a nightingale and twentyseven sparrows.