414 Messrs. P. L. Sclater and W. A. Forbes on the 



one side_, and from Amsterdam to Amersfoort on the other. 

 It belongs to a rich proprietor in Amsterdam^ but is farmed 

 out at a considerable rent for the sake of the fish^ reeds, and 

 bird^s eggs which it produces. The last-mentioned objects 

 are collected from the nests in which they are laid, twice a 

 week during the months of May and June, and sold in Am- 

 sterdam to such persons as require a large supply of fresh 

 eggs without being particular as to the source from which 

 they are derived. 



On arriving at Overmeer we were received by Hr. van 

 Dyk and escorted to a boat, which conveyed us along a short 

 canal into the Horster Meer. No sooner had we arrived on 

 the lake than the air above us was filled with an enormous flight 

 of Cormorants, who well knew what a visit to their domain 

 portended. A few minutes afterwards about 500 Spoonbills 

 were circling in the air over our heads, their long legs 

 stretched behind them, and their white bodies glistening in 

 the sun. The Meer, so far as visible, was not a very ex- 

 tensive piece of water, being closed in on all sides by enor- 

 mous reed-beds, the homes of these and other aquatic birds. 

 Having landed at the end of a ditch which penetrated into 

 one of these beds of reeds, we pursued a track which led us 

 first to a breeding-place of the Cormorants. Here was a 

 circular space, perhaps fifty yards in diameter, cleared of 

 reeds, in which the Cormorants' nests stood thick together 

 on the swampy soil. They were formed of rather large sticks, 

 piled somewhat loosely together to a height of about 18 inches 

 above the surface. The top of the nest was only slightly 

 hollowed out, and lined with a few broken reeds. The eggs 

 were in no case more than two in number, the poor birds 

 having been robbed continuously up to that time, and only 

 within the last few days allowed to commence incubation. 



Having inspected the Cormorants' breeding-place, we pro- 

 ceeded about fifty yards further through the reed-beds, over 

 a still more treacherous swamp, to the breeding-place of the 

 Spoonbills. The nests of these birds ^ were not situated so 

 near together as those of the Cormorants, but scattered about 

 two or three yards from each other, with thin patches of 



