ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM DENMARK. 91 



flat expanse in considerable numbers.* There are also small 

 colonies of Black Tern. When in Skjernaadal on May 24th I 

 was too early to see their nests, but by the end of the first week 

 in June, as Hr. Brink informed me, eggs had been laid. The 

 nests are usually in very wet places, difficult of access. The 

 Great Snipe used to nest here also, but I do not know whether 

 it still continues to do so. 



In a marshy hollow with thickets of willow, which the Bork 

 road crosses near Tarm, Hr. Brink pointed out a pair of the 

 Wood Sandpiper. This species nests not uncommonly in such 

 spots in this neighbourhood, and my friend told of a curious 

 mishap which lately occurred to a hatching bird. A boy in 

 jumping over the little stream landed right in the nest, killing 

 the Sandpiper, and breaking all the eggs but one, which was 

 brought to Hr. Brink, who kindly gave it to me. Hrr. Klinge 

 and Hansen say that the species nests in nearly all the mosses 

 from Bibe to Tarm. 



From Copenhagen a very interesting excursion may be made 

 to the island of Saltholm, about four miles long by one broad, 

 and at its nearest point some five miles from the city. Salt- 

 holm lies in the Sound outside Amager, over which can be seen 

 from it the spires and domes of Copenhagen, while on the other 

 side are visible the smoky factory chimneys of Malnio, on the 

 Swedish coast. Saltholm is very low, only indicated from the 

 Amager shore by its houses and scanty trees. In winter it is 

 liable to submergence, but, unlike Tipperne and Klsegbanken, it 

 has a floor of solid chalk, which sometimes comes to the surface, 

 and was formerly quarried. There are on the island two sets of 

 farm-buildings, one of them large and prosperous-looking, and it 

 is used by the people of Amager as a summer pasture for cattle 

 and horses. Most of it is covered with short, rich grass, which 

 becomes longer and coarser toward the south end, where it is 

 much broken by muddy pools and gullies, and ends at length in 

 an extraordinary labyrinth of stony islets extending far out into 

 the Sound, called Svaneklapperne. When first, in 1907, I 

 visited Copenhagen, I had some trouble in finding out how to 

 reach Saltholm, but was at last directed to Kastrup, the village 



* Here Seebohm and Chapman found the Black-tailed Godwit breeding, 

 as described in 'British Birds,,' iii. p. 164, and ' Wild Norway,' p. 307, &c. 



