ORNITHOLOGICAL REPORT FOR NORFOLK. 123 



Secretary of the Netherlands Protection Society some particulars 

 about the laws enforced there, which are somewhat strict and 

 require to be observed by visitors. It appears that for many 

 years there have only been two, or at the most three, carefully 

 watched Spoonbill settlements in Holland, which at the present 

 time are situated as follows, viz. : one on the Naardermeer, near 

 Amsterdam, where there were ninety protected pairs of Spoon- 

 bills nesting in 1913, and one at Zwanenwater, near Helder, 

 where about a hundred and fifty pairs were nesting. I learn 

 from Mr. Long that, by applying in the proper quarter, leave 

 can be obtained to visit Zwanenwater, but Naardermeer is 

 barred alike to natives and foreigners. Of the two places, 

 Zwanenwater is slightly the nearest to Norfolk, its position 

 on the map lying a little to the south-east of the latitude of 

 Breydon. 



Looking back some two hundred and fifty years, it is with a 

 feeling of curiosity that we remember that in June, 1663, the 

 botanical studies which John Eay was prosecuting with such 

 vigour took him and his pupil Willughby to Holland, where they 

 found Spoonbills breeding near a village called Sevenhuys, 

 situated at four leagues (about thirteen miles) from Leyden, not 

 in marshes but as they did in Norfolk, " in great numbers on 

 the top of high trees " ('Ornithology,' p. 289). This settlement, 

 from which the young Spoonbill described by Willughby was 

 probably taken, has long since become extinct, for even in 

 Pennant's time the wood where Willughby saw them breeding 

 had been cut down ('British Zoology,' ii. p. 634). At the present 

 day this would have been of less consequence, for trees do not 

 seem to be required, piled-up reeds being preferred by European 

 Spoonbills, which, like Herons, vary considerably in their habits. 

 A somewhat fuller account of this visit to Sevenhuys, and of the 

 four species, including the "Lepelaers," as Spoonbills were 

 called in Dutch, found breeding there, is supplied by Bay in his 

 journal of 'Travels through the Low Countries ' (second edition, 

 1738, p. 33), one of the very few references to Natural History to 

 be discovered in that somewhat disappointing volume. 



Little Owls which had escaped the enemy were seen at 

 Honingham by Dr. Deacon, near Swaffham by Mr. Buxton, and 

 at Surlingham. This species, which was first introduced into 



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