IMPRESSIONS OF DENMARK. 
313 
eggs. The nest itself was high and dry, though built in 
a very wet spot, which we only reached by making a 
sort of bridge with the oars. Shovelers were perhaps 
the most numerous of the Anatidse; we saw several pairs 
and odd drakes. One day three large geese—(apparently 
Anser segetum )—kept flying round the bog, and we also 
observed mallard, teal, and a single Garganey drake. 
The latter beautiful bird we put up several times, always 
at the same spot, but the most careful search failed 
to reveal the female or nest, though it must have been 
hard by. Of other swimming birds we only observed a 
few coots ; our boatman, however, introduced us to one 
more new species. 
At midday on May 12th we had landed on the 
shore of a broad lagoon. Its blue waters danced and 
gleamed in the sunlight, and over sedges and bulrush a 
Marsh-Harrier, in slow flight, quartered the ground, his 
broad brown wings almost brushing the bulrushes as 
he searched for a succulent frog; hard by, a Stork with 
rapid blows was pommelling the life out of a big eel 
he had caught; and overhead hovered Black Terns, 
Peewits, and, further away, a pair of querulous Godwits. 
We were enjoying all these sights and sounds, together 
with the rather tasty Danish delicatessen provided for 
lunch, when a sudden inspiration seized Hans, our 
boatman, and he commenced a voluble conversation in 
his native tongue. This is always an ordeal, but 
it has to be faced; and after much wrestling with 
unknown gutturals and still more pantomime, we com¬ 
prehended that he was describing a large bird with 
meget lange liaise = very long neck, which dived 
much, and had its nest among the reeds. The name of 
