on the Birds of Denmark. 395 
They seemed uneasy, and stood or ran about in a rather 
stooping attitude, looking for their eggs. After a time they 
flew off towards the shallow water, and seemed to settle in it 
like Ducks, though, owing to the wind, I could not certainly 
see whether they were swimming or wading. On our way 
back to the mainland we were delighted to see a flock of pro- 
bably not less than 100 Avocets wading on the mud-flats in 
about four inches of water. They appeared rather wild, and 
when approached went off together. Probably these belong 
to another and larger colony breeding somewhere near. Let 
us hope that they may escape the snares and live to delight 
the eyes of other naturalists. 
We returned to Tarm by another road, passing for some 
way through the great belt of sand-hills which border the 
west coast of Jutland in many places, and which for some 
months in the year 1863 afforded a congenial home and a 
breeding-place to Syrrhaptes paradoxus (see Ibis, 1864, 
p- 195). I did not meet with the gunners who snared them 
and took their eggs; and when one is unable to speak the 
language, there is always much difficulty in getting trust- 
worthy information ; but the large extent of willow and broom- 
covered sand-hills, and the admirable feeding-ground in the 
neighbourhood, seemed all that could be desired for the per- 
manent acclimatization of Syrrhaptes if its migratory mstincts 
had not been so strong. 
It was very late before we got back to Tarm, and as we 
could not spare time to wait until the Great Snipes had laid, 
we left on the 18th for Copenhagen, where Mr. Benzon had 
returned two days previously. The next day he took us to 
see the Thiergarten, a large and beautiful wooded park, about 
five or six miles north of Copenhagen, where, notwithstanding 
the number of excursionists who daily visit it in summer, 
many birds breed. Among those which I saw or heard were 
Ravens, Buzzards (one nearly white) Hooded Crows (which 
we had not observed in Jutland), Picus major and P. medius 
(both of which breed here, the latter being the commonest), 
Sitta uralensis, Certhia familaris, Parus major, P. palustris, 
P. ceruleus, and Muscicapa atricapilla, which, though very 
