ON THE NESTING OF THE SPOONBILL IN HOLLAND. 27 



railways going from Amsterdam to Utrecht on one side, and from Ibis, 1877, 

 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 Amsterdam 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 extensive piece of water, being closed in 

 on all sides by enormous 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 proceeded 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 scat- 

 tered about two or three yards from each other, with thin patches of reeds j^is ^77 

 growing between then. There was, however, a clear open space in the p. 415. 

 neighbourhood, formed of broken-down reeds, in which the birds were 

 said to congregate. The Spoonbill's nest, in the Horster Meer at least, is 

 a mere flattened surface of broken reed, not elevated more than two or 

 three inches above the general level of the swamp ; and no other sub- 

 stance but reed appears to be used in its construction. What the proper 

 complement of eggs would be if the birds were left undisturbed we 

 cannot say ; for, as in the case of the Cormorants, the nests are robbed 

 systematically twice a week, until the period when it is known by expe- 

 rience that they cannot produce any more eggs. Then at last the birds 

 are allowed to sit undisturbed. At the time of our visit the season for 

 collecting eggs was just past ; but we helped ourselves to eight fresh 



