198
Antwerp to Dordrecht.
1897.
July 22.
  Alternately cloudy and clear with heavy shower in forenoon.
Started for Holland at 3 P.M. by train. The time consumed in
getting from Antwerp to Dordrecht is only about 1 1/2 hours.
For the first 15 or 20 miles (N. Belgium) the road passes
through a wild region almost wholly devoted to planted forests
mostly of Scotch pines, the trees set in rows but very thick
together with furrows ploughed every few rods and broad
straight wood roads at wider intervals to stop fires. The
ground is kept perfectly clear of dead twigs, branches or un -
dergrowth. After passing the frontier we saw more of these
planted forests but most of the country was occupied by grain
fields or pastures all perfectly flat and scarce a foot above
the level of the water in the canals and ditches which drained
them. These meadow - like fields were swarming with birds, chief -
ly Starlings and Lapwings. The latter in flocks of 50 or more
were running about like Plover and paid no attention to our
train. On a flat covered with shallow water I saw my first
Stork, a noble bird, black and white with red or orange bill.
He was walking slowly and made a downward Heron - like thrust
with his big bill. At the long bridge across the [blank space]
I saw Gulls, Terns, a Heron, and hundreds of Waders. Most of
last named were of one species which I took to be Totanus
  They were about as large as our T. flavipes and had the 
rump conspicuously white.