Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 4 (1900).djvu/297

Rh —Common. —I saw but one, near the Rigi Stäffel Hotel. I was attracted by its greyish back and the whitish stripe over the eye. —Not common. (Cypselus apus).—I saw but one, and we were visited with no "Alpensegler," as the Alpine Swift is usually called. In addition to these twenty-six species, I heard two different species of Woodpecker, which I could not see or identify, but think that neither was Picus martius, a bird I saw a few years ago at Bex, in the Rhone Valley.

As I always make it a rule to go up a hill on my birthday, I went up Pilatus on July 12th, 1899, and there, at a height of about 7000 ft., I saw the Alpine Chough, the Snowfinch, and the Rock-Thrush. I heard for the first time the pleasing little song of the Snowfinch, and the really delightful song of the Rock-Thrush; but this latter I had heard before at the Hospice of St. Bernard in 1896. To my mind the expression "bursts" or "snatches" of song best describes this delightful warbling, which alone enlivens those dreary and almost inaccessible places. There is just one little patch of green near the Hôtel Pilatus Kulm, and an observer standing above it, and looking over the wall, may see these rare birds below him, and hear undisturbed their delightful song, with something of the Robin in it, and of the Blackcap too.

I may mention that at the famous "Tunnels" on the Axenstrasse, near Brunnen, the Crag Martin may always be found, and also at the Gorges du Trient, near Vernayaz, at the Rhone Valley. I have also seen the Wall-Creeper near the Tunnels, but never yet have I been favoured with a sight of the Alpine Accentor, one of the very few Swiss birds whose acquaintance I cannot claim.