SALT-MARSHES OF WEST JUTLAND. 
321 
very hard-sat, also three Mallards’ nests and many of 
various gulls. 
Here, also, we at length got fairly among the nests 
of the Reeves, which had hitherto cost us so much 
fruitless search. They were now (May 15th) beginning 
to lay; of ten nests found, only two contained the full 
complement of four eggs, the others one, two, or three. 
The Reeve invariably breeds on firm grass-land (not on 
the squash-bogs) and the nest is well concealed, like 
that of a redshank, in a hollow of some tuft of grass. 
We also found here a nest of Ring-Dotterel, 
Wandering on from islet to islet across mud-flat and 
oozy shallows, we were soon a long way from the main¬ 
land, while the intense heat-shimmer and mirage effects, 
distorting objects comparatively near at hand, were 
most confusing. It was difficult to say what we really 
did see, or how much was illusive. The whole singular 
scene, with its weird monotony and teeming bird-life, 
may remind readers of “ Wild Spain,” of similar descrip¬ 
tions of the Andalucian “ marismas.” Here flamingoes 
were replaced by pelicans ; stilts and sand-grouse by 
ruffs, reeves, and oyster-catchers ; and, despite the heat, 
there was the evidence and the sentiment of the more 
northern latitude. Here a paternal government is 
endeavouring to reclaim these wastes from the sea. 
The whole region belongs to the Danish Crown, and the 
system adopted is to carry out parallel lines of turf 
across the hats, some of these, between islet and islet, 
regular raised causeways, elsewhere mere strips, about 
sixty or seventy yards apart. The intervals gradually 
silt up, and become occupied, at first by a growth of 
reeds and flags, but in time by grass, which slowly builds 
