516_ BRITISH BIRDS. 
of the organs of voice; and Dresser is in error in ascribing to Naumann 
the statement that its note ‘‘is deep and Heron-like.” 
The most accessible breeding-colony of the Spoonbill is situated on the 
banks of the Horster Meer, a lake situated between Amsterdam and 
Utrecht. I paid a visit to this colony late in May 1880, in the company 
of Captain Elwes. The country is very flat, and bears a striking resem- 
blance to the broads of Norfolk. Stretching away on each side of the 
road, almost as far as the eye could reach, nothing was to be seen but 
lakes, swamps, marshes, and willow-beds, intersected by a river, and in a 
few places, where the ground was firm enough for pasture, with dykes. 
We soon found the lessee of the meer, who informed us that he paid a 
rent of about £420 a year for the right of fishing, shooting in winter, 
collecting eggs in summer, and gathering an annual crop of willow-twigs 
for basket-making. We rowed for a short distance between willow-beds 
until the dyke became too narrow for oars, when our guide jumped on to 
the bank and towed us along for some distance. Occasionally we saw a 
Black Tern or a Cormorant, and at length had the pleasure of seeing two 
pairs of Spoonbills. On landing we found ourselves on marshy ground 
thickly overgrown with reeds and sedges, amongst which were growing 
two rare species of British ferns, Lastrea thelipteris in great abundance 
and Lastrea cristata. somewhat sparmgly. ‘The ground was also con- 
siderably diversified by a display of wild flowers, such as marsh-mallow, 
ragged robin, &c. ‘To our right alder and willow bushes appeared to 
extend indefinitely ; but to the left open ground led to the meer, on the 
banks of which a large colony of Cormorants, consisting of at least five 
hundred birds, were breeding. ‘Turning our backs on this interesting 
colony for the present, we entered the alder-and-willow thicket, and after 
some time suddenly came upon the object of our search. A flock of at 
least two or three hundred Spooubills rose from behind the alder bushes, 
. their white wings glittering in the sun in strong contrast to their black 
legs stretched out behind, and their long necks and dark bills projecting 
so conspicuously in front. For some time they fiew about like Gannets 
at the Bass Rock; but we never heard them utter a cry. We made for 
the direction in which they rose, and after wandering backwards and 
forwards for some time at length came upon three nests containing eggs, 
and we were not long in finding the main colony, which consisted of per- 
haps fifty nests, all contained within a radius of about twenty yards. The 
nests are robbed every Saturday and the eggs sold; and few of them 
contained more than one egg. Most of the nests were built on grassy 
tussocks, but a few of them were in the alder trees three or four feet 
above the ground; and the effluvium from the droppings of the birds was 
very strong, and would have been disagreeable had not.a strong gale been 
blowing all the day. Upon our invasion of their nesting-grounds, most 
