62 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



of a snake. Several species of this family are 

 provided with similar hooks, which form most 

 effective instruments for the dispersion of their 

 seeds, through their becoming firmly attached to 

 the skins of animals, which accidentally come in 

 contact with them." 



In Madagascar I observed a very singular form 

 of plant-seed, evidently adapted for a similar 

 purpose. It is a large seed capsule with broad 

 elastic processes issuing out from its surface, 

 armed with curved hooks, turned in every direction. 

 No animal once getting one of these in its hair 



could ever disengage it, and as the capsule dried 

 and cracked and let out the seeds, the}' would be 

 distributed wherever the animal wandered. The 

 natives said they tied them on to "lianes" (jungle 

 creepers) and stretched them across their seed- 

 beds to capture the rats that came to devour the 

 seeds. My sailor attendant, who carried my 

 butterfly-net, threw half-a-dozen of them into it, 

 in order to carry them ; I leave your readers to 

 guess the state of that net — I never caught another 

 butterfly in it. 



" Otterbourne," Budleigh Salterton ; April, 1894. 



COLLECTING GROUNDS.— I. BIRDS IN TEXEL. 

 By Jac. P. Thysse. 



TN the summer of 1890 I had the pleasure of 

 showing to some English naturalists the breed- 

 ing place of the Avocet (Recurvirostra avocetta) in the 

 island of Texel. Since then the island has been 

 repeatedly visited by English ornithologists, and 

 they always went home delighted, and, I fear, only 

 too well provided with eggs and nests and young 

 birds. In fact, there is now among our home 

 workers a strong current of feeling running against 

 foreign collectors, especially Englishmen, who are 

 said to commit great slaughter and havoc among 

 our rare birds that are not to be found in England. 

 Now, this may be true or not ; but in all cases, as yet, 

 there is no danger of any birds being exterminated, 

 for the species that were gradually disappearing 

 (the spoonbill and the purple heron) are strictly 

 preserved by the owners of the big swamps where 

 they breed. 



During a stay of a week a good deal of work may 

 be done in the province of North Holland. First of 

 all a visit should be paid to the Naardermeer, a 

 property of the Rutgers van Rozenburg family. 

 As strangers are strictly forbidden to enter the 

 grounds, permission should be asked for, which is 

 readily granted on condition of "no collecting." 

 A hunter and a keeper dwelling at the entrance of the 

 lake may be found ready to accompany the casual 

 visitor, and to furnish a boat. The lake is very 

 shallow and quite overgrown with reeds and every 

 kind of aquatic weeds, a real botanical paradise. 

 Ten years ago an effort was made to drain the lake, 

 which miscarried on the brink of success, the 

 result being a very complete system of waterways 

 making circulation through the swamp very easy. 

 A straight canal of about two miles length, which 

 crosses the railway embankment by a tunnel, leads 

 to the great breeding place south of the railway. 

 On our visit, in the spring of 1893, we noticed, 

 besides the great attractions, the spoonbill and the 

 purple heron, great quantities of wild duck, teal, 

 black-headed gull, common tern, coot, redshanks, 



godwit, avocet, and lapwing. Of the smaller birds 

 both the common and the great reedwarbler were 

 very plentiful besides reed-buntings. Bearded tits 

 are also said to be found here, though we were not 

 able to detect them. The lake is much frequented 

 by marsh harriers, and by sand martins who have 

 their nests in the banks of the adjoining heath 

 district — the goorland. 



Another breeding haunt of the purple heron is 

 near the village of Aalsmeer. You take the 

 Aalsmeer boat to the Oyfhuizerlaan station on the 

 Haarlemmerringvaart. There a boat can be got 

 at little cost with which you must cross the canal 

 and enter boldly into the first ditch opposite. A 

 little sharp work takes you to a small lake with a 

 countless number of narrow outlets on which the 

 herons may be found. The birds do not abound 

 here as in the Naardermeer, indeed, I must confess 

 that we sometimes have been there without even 

 seeing a single bird, but still they are there, and we 

 think the spoonbills too. In July, 1893, we 

 observed quite a flock of them on the neighbouring 

 meadows. The shaky land round the lake is a 

 splendid botanical swamp, but dangerous to tread 

 on. Green little pools lurk everywhere and you 

 must try every footstep, or you might suddenly be 

 swallowed up in the black mire beneath. 



Near the little village of Callantsoog, in the 

 midst of the dunes, is a marshy valley with a small 

 lake, the Zwanewater, now the spot where the 

 spoonbills breed in great numbers, very much in 

 the same company as in the Naardermeer. The 

 grounds are very carefully preserved, too, and a 

 permission to enter them cannot be dispensed with. 



Callantsoog is situated in the neighbourhood of 

 Den Helder, whence a small steamer crosses to 

 the island of Texel, the ornithological El Dorado 

 of Holland. 



We cherish a fond belief that even the spoonbills 

 still breed there ; in June, 1891, we saw a flock of 

 seven birds in the marshes, on the eastern part of the 



