192 BIRD-HUNTING 



one sees the same type of house as these earliest 

 buildings. No doubt they are larger and better 

 furnished, but they are the same low, whitewashed 

 and reed-thatched cottages, standing each by itself, 

 and scattered irregularly on each side of the wide, 

 sandy road. 



Goose-keeping seems to be a universal village 

 industry, judging from the multitudes of geese one 

 meets with round the villages. Each flock is guarded 

 by a child, who accompanies them everywhere, and 

 sees that one hissing family does not get mixed up 

 with another while grazing along the roadsides or 

 disporting themselves in the village pond. On hot 

 days these ponds are full of a mixed crowd of naked 

 children, geese, and yellow goslings, all enjoying 

 themselves hugely in the muddy water. 



Under Herr Cerva's guidance I visited a distant 

 marsh where we found many birds nesting of great 

 interest to me. It was an extraordinary place ; no 

 stranger could have told that there was a marsh at 

 all. It looked exactly like the surrounding country, 

 being grown over with grass instead of the high 

 reeds and water-plants generally found in marshy 

 situations. Almost the first thing to be seen close 

 to the roadside was a colony of Black Terns and 

 the beautiful White-winged Black Terns (Hydro- 

 chelidon leucoptera) apparently flying and hovering 

 over a field. But to reach the nests it was 



