271 



NOTES FROM A BIRD-NESTING EXPEDITION TO THE SOUTH 



OF HOLLAND. 



BY WILLIAM BRIDGEB, ESQ. 



The excellent descriptions of the habits and nesting places of many of the 

 rarer British Birds, by the late Mr. Hoy, as given in Mr. Hewitson's 

 *' Illustrations of the Eggs of British Birds," induced me to take a trip to the 

 south of Holland. 



Accordingly, the 7th May last, I left this country, and crossing over to 

 Antwei-p, found myself, on the 9th, at ValJi»enswaard, a small village, situate JL 

 between the rivers Dommel and Fongreep, near the Belgian frontier, about 

 seven miles from the town of Eindover, and about twenty-eight from the 

 still larger town of Bois le Due, called by the Dutch Hertogenbosch, (or 

 " The Bosch," as they often term it, for shortness,) on the river Mouse. 

 Here, then, at the comfortable " Valken Inn," with its painted signboard of 

 a Hooded Falcon, I took up my quarters for the season. And with no 

 flaunting boast has that Inn derived its name of the Falcon Inn, for its good 

 owner, Mr. James Bots, was falconer in England for years, and has not 

 long retired from being falconer to the hawking club at the Loo of which the 

 king is the president, and is now, as ever, ready to be first or second in 

 anything in the way of sport. Bots, who speaks English fluently, was our 

 constant companion ; and a better fellow never lived. Besides Bots, two or 

 three others in the village speak English, the girls and many of the men 

 French, and the rest Dutch, which resembles bad German. Mr. Baker, a 

 naturalist of Cambridge, had arrived before me, and being on the same 

 pursuit as myself, and being a good bird-skinnei-, materially aided me in my 

 search. 



Little Owl. Strix passerina. Tem. Kleine steen Uil, Dutch or provincial 

 name. This Owl is by no means rare there ; a nest with one egg in was taken 

 before my arrival. The doctor of Leende, a village about four miles from 

 Valkenswaard, whose name I do not recollect, kindly allow-ed a nest of three 

 eggs to be taken from a hole in a walnut tree in his garden ; he told me he 

 was only too glad to get rid of them, for the noise they made at night was 

 abominable. The eggs were taken the 19th June, and had been sat upon 

 some time. Two broods were, to my knowledge, hatched out in the village ; 

 one from a walnut tree in a garden, and the other from a hole in the church; 

 I heard of the latter on my return from the Loo, where I had been to see 

 the hawking. I was desirous of obtaining one or two young ones, but as the 

 hole was at a considerable elevation, and extended a long way in, the only 

 way to get them was, as Bots said, to " lime them." We tried with two live 

 young bii'ds, one evening, but either we arrived too late, or the young birds 

 were not a delicacy, for we did not succeed. However, on the 19th June, a 

 live mouse with difficulty having been obtained, we commenced operations. 

 Having noticed that the Owls generally perched in the early part of tlie 



