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Pictures of Bird Life 



— so niuc'li so that it is only a question of time — a few 

 more years — and they will have to be followed still farther 

 afield, to eountries where they ean find more free and 



unoceiipied space and less human 

 persecution. 



Holland is the nearest and 

 most easily accessible, and it was 

 there that I first experienced the 

 delio'hts of working in a fresh 

 country, where birds which had 

 hitherto only been seen in books 

 and museums were to be met 

 with at home, full of living grace 

 and beauty. 



I weaving London at eight in 

 the evening by the comfortable 

 Hook of Holland route, rid 

 Harwich, one finds oneself on 

 Dutch soil about five oV'lock the next morning, almost 

 without knowing that there has been any sea passage at all. 

 Then about four hours' journey brings one to the house 

 of a Dutch friend, to whom I am indebted for my first 

 introduction to a large fresh-water '* meer," inhabited by 

 many of the birds whose extinction and diminution we 

 ha^•e just been deploring in England. 



The exact locality of this place I prefer to keep to myself, 

 for there are now but two localities in the whole of North- 

 western Europe where the Spoonbill still nests, and this is 



\oUNG Gki \1 I\];ru-WARBLER 



(^Acroccpliahis tuidoidcs) . 



