180 c. and h. candleb’s notes from the Netherlands. 
right track, and in the next to Dr. 0. Kerbert, the Director of the 
Zoological Gardens at Amsterdam, who very kindly gave us full 
directions as to the exact whereabouts of the birds. Provided 
with his letter we called, on the morning of June 20th, at the 
house of Mr. Hoetmer, the caretaker of the Meer, which 
fortunately is strictly preserved by its owner. Iioetmer himself, 
his house, his boats, and eel-boxes, his garden, and his stacks of 
reeds and coarse marsh hay, strongly recalled to us our own Broad 
district ; and as we rowed down the cut leading to the Meer, the 
resemblance between the two districts seemed complete. Hoetmer, 
indeed, is a thorough marshman of the old type, full of broadcraft 
and alive to the significance of every sight and sound of his 
watery domain. Naarder Meer was probably at one time a large 
sheet of water, but it is now almost filled by a dense growth of 
reeds and rank marsh vegetation, and there is little open water 
left. On all sides we heard the powerful ringing notes of the 
Great Eeed Warbler — the KareJciet — and the marshman had no 
difficulty in showing us a nest. Both this and the Common Reed 
Warbler were abundant here ; but Hoetmer said that in many 
districts one species only would be present, and would quite 
displace the other. Otters abounded in the thick reed-beds, and 
among many common water birds he mentioned the Bearded Tit as 
breeding about the Meer. 
After pulling a considerable distance, and passing under the 
railway, which traverses the swamp on an embankment, we reached 
a distant part of the Meer, and punting the boat along narrow 
channels, we made our way into the heart of a great reed-bed. 
Presently we had a distant glimpse of two or three Spoonbills, and 
a few minutes later we came suddenly upon their quarters. The 
birds all took flight one after another, and so long as we remained 
upon the spot they flew slowly round overhead, giving no cry, and 
yet none the less betraying, by this strange silence, their uneasiness 
and solicitude. The sun was shining brightly, and avo could watch 
to great advantage their manner of flight, and admire their snowy 
plumage and strangely-formed bills. 
The nests were large, made of broken reeds loosely interwoven 
and secured to growing stems ; they did not rest upon the mud, 
but floated on the water, which was here a foot or a foot and a 
half deep, so that by putting an oar underneath the whole mass 
