MULTIPLYING WATER BIRDS.
Why is it that so many water birds have multiplied? Sonic of the reservoirs (notably by Staines) arc almost black with coot, and attempts to reduce the numbers to a moderate total have quite failed. Perhaps the tale would be different if they were good to eat. I once came upon a party of gipsies in South Wales who accepted coot with avidity and averred that it was one of the best birds that flies (or refuses to fly). But in few country places will even the poorest folk eat the moorhen, which is a much less unsavoury morsel than the coot. For the multiplication of these too common birds we have some com- pensation in the revival of the greater crestedgrebe, handsomest of all the water birds, and most delightful to watch. It, too, is as fond of reservoirs on the edge of London as of the loneliest Broad, though it is prevented from nesting by the tribes
of crows.
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