458 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
added to the interest of the trip. We travelled by rail from 
Amsterdam to Hilversum, passing at first through a district of 
low meadow country intersected by dykes, and afterwards across 
somewhat more elevated land, for the most part barren sandy 
heath. The date was the 23rd of May; the day was uninterrupted 
brilliant sunshine, but a stiff breeze was blowing, which naturally 
had the effect of making large birds wild on the wing, and of 
causing small birds to skulk in the shelter of the alders and 
willows. 
Hilversum is the Tivoli of Amsterdam; and we drove for 
a mile or so through a charming country, full of the villas of 
Amsterdam merchants, nestled in beech and oak woods, and 
surrounded by garden-plots, gay with flowers and shrubs, but 
whose beauty in English eyes was somewhat marred by the 
regulation white statues of the country. An hour’s drive brought 
us out of the woods and gardens to an immense plain, stretching 
away on each side of the road almost as far as the eye could 
reach; lakes, swamps, marshes, and willow-beds, intersected by 
a river, and, in places where the ground was firm enough for 
pasture, with dykes. Passing through several straggling villages, 
the inhabitants of which seemed to be principally occupied in 
peeling willow, to be afterwards woven into baskets, and mending 
fishing-nets, we travelled for some distance alongside the River 
Vecht. The second hour’s drive with a good horse brought us to 
Overmeer-an-de-Vecht, a small village close to the Horster Meer, 
the lake on whose shores the Spoonbills were reported to breed. 
Our guide conducted us to the house where Mynheer Van 
Dyk, the lessee of the Horster Meer used to reside. Here we 
learned that he was no longer living, but we discovered the new 
lessee, sitting on the ground, smoking his pipe and mending his 
nets. He informed us that he pays a rent of about £420 a-year 
for the Meer, which probably includes the annual crop of willow- 
twigs, the fishing, and the winter's shooting, together with the 
eggs. ‘lhe man who was employed to collect the eggs was absent, 
but he volunteered to take us in his boat to the Meer, and to try 
and find the breeding-place for us, which, strange to say, he had 
evidently never visited, at least during this season. We rowed 
for a short distance between willow-beds until the dyke became 
too narrow for oars, when our new friend the lessee jumped on to 
the bank and towed us along for some distance. At first we were 
