THE LAST /WEEK IN MARCH 33 
beak, a whitened breast, and some wing 
bones were all that remained of one of the 
robbers just mentioned. We wondered how 
and why this bird had come by its end. 
It must have been shot, we thought—for it is 
as rare a thing to find a dead crow as it is to 
find a dead donkey. A little further on a 
flutter and a short croak (like a moorhen’s, 
but pitched in a higher key and uttered more 
sharply), denoted a Coot. Searching the 
spot, the bird meanwhile invisible, we found 
two nests, half built, hanging in a may bush 
over the water. We watched them subse- 
quently, but they were never completed. 
They were, however, moorhens’ nests. Moor- 
hens have a habit of building nests partially 
without completing them. I think, also, that 
they use their nests for roosting purposes 
after nesting time is over. In the month of 
August I found several all in good order, 
close to the water’s edge, a few feet from 
each other. The interiors looked as if the 
birds sat in them—and it was then long 
past their nesting time. Again, in another 
B.N.—IL. D 
