Bird Life in Dutch Marshes 2G1 



tlie mud-fiats alouo- tlic shore at low tide. We foimd them, 

 in this Dutch ishiiid, M'ith the same preference for the 

 company of Redshanks which had been noticed in Spain. 



Many Redshanks' nests were carefully hidden in the 

 tufts of long o-rass : C^odwits were also numerous, but we 

 were too late for eo;os. By their excited demeanour they 

 had evidently youno- birds hidden in the luxuriant orass 



Nest of Lesser Ter.x [S/ci/ut uiinula). 



in the meadows, in which they breed. This grass was far 

 too thick and liigli to permit of anything like a successful 

 search bein"' made for them. Thev are tlie Black-tailed 

 Godwits, which, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, 

 were accustomed to nest in the eastern counties of England. 

 The Bar-tailed Godwits, so common along our coasts in the 

 autumn and winter, do not nest anywhere south of Lapland. 



