76 BRITISH BIRDS. 



in Western Europe, but in Eastern Europe, in the valley of the Danube, 

 where the seasons are later, its eggs are not laid before the beginning of 

 June. I have taken the eggs of this bird in Jutland and in the valley of 

 the Danube. The west of Jutland is flat not a dead flat, but gently undu- 

 lating. Its most striking peculiarity is the almost entire absence of trees. 

 It has evidently once been sand, with a deposit of bog in the lower 

 lands. Sometimes for miles you travel over desolate and monotonous 

 heaths ; but where the soil is better it is drained and cultivated. These 

 parts of the country look less desolate, but quite as monotonous. The 

 houses are scattered over the country, seldom collected in villages, 

 each the facsimile of the other, and without a single element of pictur- 

 esqueness. At Tarm a river winds through some extensive marshes, and 

 often in many channels reaches a fjord perhaps six or eight miles off. 

 These marshes are rich in birds. At the south end of this fjord is a 

 peninsula, a square mile or two in extent, separated by a narrow bay from 

 the line of sand-hills or dunes which flank the sea. To this paradise of 

 Waders I made a visit on the 15th of May, 1879, in search of the colony 

 of Avocets which breeds there every year. We drove across country 

 along hard roads, sandy tracts, over mud, through water, to the grassy 

 flat of the promontory. We were a party of six besides the driver. Mr. 

 Benzon, of Copenhagen, and Mr. Seehusen kindly piloted us to the spot. 

 My friend Capt. Elwes and I occupied the one seat, and on a plank at our 

 feet sat our stolid driver, smoking his pipe ; by his side an old man with a 

 gun, who was supposed to thoroughly understand the geography of the 

 peninsula, but who found it necessary to pick up a bare-footed lad who 

 was erroneously imagined to have a personal acquaintance with the nesting- 

 grounds of each species of bird in the district. As we drove along we 

 stopped to shoot a pair of Dotterel feeding on a fallow, with two or three 

 others on their way to the fjelds of Norway to breed. As we neared the 

 fjord, Lesser, Common, and Black Terns flew past us ; and when we arrived 

 on the peninsula we were soon the centre of attraction of Dunlins, Red- 

 shanks, and Ringed Plovers, whose breeding-grounds we were invading. 

 A flock of Curlews would not allow us to come within range. Dunlins 

 were mostly in pairs, and we took a nest or two of eggs. We found a few 

 Redshank's eggs, but were evidently too early for the Ruffs. Ringed 

 Plovers had young a few days old, but the Gulls and Terns had not begun 

 to breed. All this time we searched in vain for the Avocets. We saw 

 neither birds nor eggs. Our guides declared that we were a fortnight too 

 early, and that the birds had not arrived. We retraced our steps and had 

 little more than a mile further to go, when we caught sight of a bird struggling 

 in a snare on a grassy flat, separated by a half-dried-up stream full of 

 black mud and Equisetce from the main promontory. We soon struggled 

 across, and were delighted to find an Avocet caught in a snare, placed over 



