12 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
22nd May, and fresh eggs were obtained up to the end of the 
month, so that their time of laying varies considerably. 
On the 4th June, near Gorkum, we first made the acquaintance 
of the Great Reed Warbler. Acrocephalus arundinaceus, and its 
numbers here are extraordinary; in a twelve mile walk from 
Sliedrecht to Gorkum, along the banks of the Merwede, after 
eight o’clock at night, its curious craking notes never ceased, except 
as we passed through the villages. There must have been 
hundreds of these birds along the river. We found one nest on 
the 8th, containing two young, just hatched, and two eggs chipped 
by their occupants, but this was an exceptionally early one ; 
and out of a dozen or more nests found in various stages, we only 
saw three eggs in all. In the present year, however, round about 
Dordt, we took numbers from the 10th to the 13th June, five 
eggs being the full complement. ‘These birds appear to prefer 
the vicinity of the open water, and the nests are seldom placed 
but on borders of the reed-beds just raised sufficiently to escape 
the highest tides, though often so little above the surface that 
the bottom is in the water at each flood. They are often placed 
in willow forks, as well as interwoven with the reeds, and are 
built of water-plants, small reeds and grass, sometimes mostly of 
grass mixed with a little moss, the lining being of finer bits of 
reed and grass. The birds are very anxious and noisy if 
disturbed after beginning to sit, and look quite fierce as they dash 
about within a yard of your head, opening wide their red throats, 
and chiding loudly. é 
There are some vast reed-beds—I might almost say “reed 
forests” —around Dordt, tenanted by not a few Bitterns, Botaurus 
stellaris, and it was not at all uncommon, even in the middle of the 
day, to hear their unearthly “boom” echoing through the air; but 
they take up their abode in such inaccessible places that undivided 
attention must be given to them, if nests are to be taken. We got 
. within a few yards of a bird one day, but it managed to escape our 
view, and its nest also, for we had to retire before the rising tide. 
It is no joke being overtaken by the tide in a square mile of 
reeds eight feet high. Some of these reeds grow to an enormous 
height, one we measured being twelve feet nine inches in length! 
The Marsh Warbler, Acrocephalus palustris, was in con- 
siderable numbers, but it had not begun to lay, and the only 
satisfaction we had was in finding several nests, just ready for 
