on some Swiss Birds. 139 



cessible from below or from above, as tbey were placed 

 immediately beneath an overhanging projection of rock. 

 We watched the birds nearly all day — both when high above 

 with slow undulatory flight, and when dashing past, catching 

 insects. They are conspicuous on the wing by the large oval 

 white spots on the inner web of the tail-feathers. We shot 

 two, a male and female. The sexes do not differ in plumage. 

 According to our guide, Anderegg, the Crag Swallows 

 pass the winter here in the Haslithal, hiding in caves and 

 crevices in the rocks ; and he says he has seen them in 

 winter flying about the village of Meiringen. We also saw 

 this bird about the rocks of the Briinig Pass. 



TiCHODROMA MURARiA. " Tichodromc echellete," '' Mauer- 

 laufer.^' 



Of the Wall Creeper I was not successful in obtaining the 

 nest ; indeed, in the two springs that I passed in Switzerland 

 I only saw six specimens, and obtained one — a male in 

 summer plumage — on the Gemmi in June. I saw four on 

 the great crags near Kandersteg, and one on the 10th No- 

 vember creeping up the wall of the Academic at Lausanne. 

 Anderegg says that they are very common at the Teufels- 

 briicke, near Goschenen; but unfortunately the day we 

 were there was very wet, which no doubt accounted for our 

 not seeing them. Anderegg, who has accompanied Dr. Victor 

 Fatio and other naturalists, and whose observations on birds 

 are generally to be trusted, told me that " at the time of the 

 moult from the breeding-plumage in July and August, the 

 bird loses half of its long bill, which, however, soon grows 

 again ; " and he has sent Dr. Fatio specimens to prove it. I 

 have not seen Dr. Fatio since, to ask him. In the collection 

 of Herr Staufler of Lucerne, I saw a pair of old birds with 

 three young stufied, all of which he obtained himself in the 

 Grisons. 



The note of the Wall Creeper, according to my own 

 observation, resembles that of the Tree Creeper, but is clearer. 



M. Lecthaler-Dimier, of the Museum of Natural History 

 at Geneva, told us that in winter he had often shot the Wall 



