on some Swiss Birds. 131 



Museum of Natural History under the able direction of ray 

 friend M. Lunel, who was always willing to give me infor- 

 mation. To Dr. Victor Fatio^s kindness in advising me as 

 to the best localities in the Alps for observations on birds 

 I am much indebted for what success 1 have had, and, lastly, 

 to my old guide Johann Anderegg, whose field-knowledge of 

 birds is excellent and was of great assistance. 



I arrived in Geneva in March, and on the 28th went to 

 St. Maurice, a small village in the Uhone valley, some fifteen 

 miles from the east end of the Lake of Geneva, to search 

 for Nutcrackers' nests ; but from want of knowing the 

 chasseurs and their language, I was not successful, though 

 one old chasseur told me that he knew that the " Nussheher '' 

 nested in the fir-woods near Evionnaz, two miles from St. 

 Maurice. My next excursion was made in the end of May 

 from Chaux-de-Fonds, in the Canton of Neuchatel, near the 

 French frontier — a very good place at which to observe birds, 

 the town being situated on the slopes of the Jura, and within 

 ten minutes' walk of its pine-forests. There I found the 

 Citril Finch, Ring Ouzel, Firecrest, and Black Woodpecker 

 breeding, and saw a fir-tree whence the year before a nest of 

 the Nutcracker was taken. The latter was in the thick of 

 the great pine-forests, at a lower altitude than Chaux-de- 

 Fonds, and in those forests I hope some day to take the nest 

 myself. 



Thus it was not until June 10th that I started for the 

 Alps, fortified with a ^'^ permis special'^ from the Govern- 

 ment to collect birds, without which one can do nothing in 

 Switzerland. From Geneva I went up the Rhone valley to 

 Simplon and Leukerbad — the latter one of the best-known 

 bathing establishments in Switzerland, almost at the foot of 

 the Gemmi Pass, well known as connecting the Rhone valley 

 with the Bernese Oberland. In the fir-woods about the 

 village of Leukerbad, Crested Tits, Black Woodpeckers, 

 Crossbills, and Ring Ouzels are to be found in fair quantity, 

 and in the lower meadow-land Meadow Buntings, White 

 Wagtails, and many Warblers ; Black Redstarts are also 

 very plentiful about Leukerbad. Thence I ascended the 



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