108 A, LONGS DAY Wits TEE BIeps 
they scrambled for the oatmeal the animals 
had left in it. I knew they would not wait 
for a photograph, unfortunately, without 
preparing a hiding-place for the camera. 
A great many mallards and moorhens had 
been nesting in and around the moat of the 
castle, and we disturbed several broods of 
them, for they were almost all hatched by 
now. In the branches of an old elder which 
hung over the still water, a sedge-warbler had 
built only a foot from the surface. The nest 
was Cleverly placed out of reach. We much 
regretted the short time left at our disposal 
for exploring here, but in a long hedge, the last 
we searched for the day, we found many 
blackbirds’ and thrushes’ nests and also some 
linnets’, hedge-sparrows’ and_ chaffinches’. 
(These birds have already been described.) 
There were greenfinches here too and yellow 
hammers, and in a deodora was a goldfinch’s 
nest about ten feet from the ground, unphoto- 
eraphable, of course. One nest of special inter- 
est was that of a redstart. We saw the bird. 
It was about the size of a hedge-sparrow and 
