NOTES AND QUERIES. 263 



ribbon, between the strips of sound ground, even the Lark and Pipit are 

 scarcely seen. Their place is taken by birds which in England are only 

 found in the salt-marshes or on the high moors. Hundreds of Redshanks 

 nest in the mowing grass, and every few acres hold a pair of these noisy 

 but most ornamental birds. They are incessantly in motion, skimming low 

 over the grass aud water, with bright red legs stretched backwards, aud 

 uttering their musical call. Godwits, a large wader, are almost equally 

 common, and their fine olive-clouded eggs, as well as those of the Redshank, 

 are brought in uumbers into the towns for sale as ' Plover's eggs.' Another 

 1 polder' bird is the Oystercatcher. These not only nest in the meadows,* 

 but fly in at all times of the year when the flood-tide has driven them from 

 the sands of the shallow sea beyond the dunes. Of all the birds of the 

 district the Oystercatchers are the most restless and vociferous, dashing at 

 any trespassers, whether dog or man, and pursuing them with incessant 

 screams until they have left the neighbourhood of their nest, when the 

 pursuit is generally taken up by a second pair. The Curlews nest on the 

 margin of the sand-dunes, but haunt the wet meadows at all hours of the 

 day aud night. Even Swallows and Martins are not common, their place 

 being taken near the coast by the beautiful white Terns, the ' sea-swallows,' 

 which twist and hover over the canals and dykes on the watch for fish. 

 These Terns are as tame as English Sparrows ; tamer perhaps, for while 

 the Sparrow has the boldness which comes from familiarity with danger, the 

 Terns pursue their fishing by the roadside as if man did not exist. Each 

 bird beats a certain length of canal, drifting on long white wings almost as 

 the wind carries it, and falling instantaneously to the surface when it sees 

 a fish. When tired the birds fly to the locks, and there sit sunning them- 

 selves on the black-and-white mooring-posts which stud the water near the 

 bank. Wild Ducks are scattered over the whole of the ' polders,' though 

 nowhere in great numbers, except round the large country-houses where 

 they are preserved. But every alder copse seems to hold a brood, and the 

 old Mallards lie out all day in the sun in the thick grasses among the 

 butter-burrs. Herons frequent every part of the polder flats, and the 

 number of heronries in the thick canal-bordered woods which surround the 

 mansions of the Dutch country squires is very large. That at the Royal 

 Palace, which was the scene of the last meets at the Loo Hawking Club, is 

 the largest and best known. But in many of the least wooded districts 

 they seem equally common, though suitable sites for nesting-places do not 

 exist. Like the Cormorants in the Amsterdam Zoological Gardens, which 

 have built nests upon the ground adjoining the lakes, these Herons have 

 abandoned their usual habits, and nest wherever a few trees offer a home. 

 One considerable colony, between the Hook of Holland and Schiedam, is 



* This information will be new to those who are accustomed to regard 

 the Oystercatcher as almost exclusively a shore bird, 



