LAST WEEK IN MAY 121 
wings whilst she took short quick paddles 
round her family. In another part we found 
a solitary duckling, which swam its fastest 
away from us, but kept close to the bank. 
We wondered why it was alone. Had it got 
separated somehow from the brood, or were 
its brothers and sisters dead ? This last con- 
jecture was probably correct, for a few hours 
afterwards we found this very bird lying 
decapitated on the path. It must have been 
caught and killed by a rat that seized it as 
it passed, for we saw no carrion crows or 
hawks, and we were not far off all the while. 
Close by were several broken and empty 
duck’s eggs, and also some blackbird’s. In 
this case the depredator was probably a 
carrion crow. The feaster had carried them 
some distance and consumed them all on one 
spot, finding the flat path a convenient table 
on which to take its repast. We were in- 
formed that a female mallard had been found 
badly mauled near by. This was doubtless 
the bird that had laid the eggs, and the cir- 
cumstances confirmed our suspicion as to the 
