199
(Hotel Ponsen). Dordrecht, Holland.
1897.
July 23.
  Clear and cool with strong N.W. wind - a September-like
day. Spent most of the day in the business part of the the town
visiting the markets and canals and lunching at the Hotel
Bellevue on the Merevede over which numbers of Black-headed
Gulls (L. ridibundus) mostly young birds, were fishing. They
were very tame often flying or hovering low over the wharves
and coming within a few yards of the piazza where we were sit-
ting. The only other birds seen here were a few Jackdaws and
a Heron (Ardea [blank space]). The latter looked exactly like our
A. herodias as it flapped lazily over a canal and alighted in 
the marsh on the further side.
  Starting out again just before sunset I spent nearly two
hours strolling about the streets near our hotel. They are
shaded by a double row of vigorous young English elms about
40 ft. in height and bordered by canals some thirty feet in
width. On the further side of the canals are houses with
lawns, shrubbery, flower beds and gardens shaded by fine old
trees. Nowhere else in Europe have I seen so many flowers or
so great and interesting a variety of trees and shrubs. Gera-
nims, fusias, begonias, tea roses and nasturtiums seem to be
the favorite flowers. Horse-chestnuts, plane trees, weeping
willows, retinosporas and Lombardy poplars are the commonest
trees. Every lawn has a big rhubarb plant carefully cultiva-
ted.