144 Mr. S. B. Wilson's Notes 



that our friend Dr. Fatio had advised us to look about under 

 the eaves of any small buildings near which we savs^ any 

 Snow Finches^ we went straight to Lucerne (where, we may 

 remark, en passant, that Herr Stauffer has a fine collection of 

 Alpine mammals and birds), and thence to Goschenen, 

 intending to search the St. Gothard. On the 27th May, 

 with Anderegg, who had accompanied me the previous 

 spring, I left Goschenen at 11 a.m., intending to push on 

 to Meiringen over the Furka, as we heard from the inn- 

 keeper at Goschenen that the Saint Gothard was impass- 

 able, owing to the soft state of the snow — the road over 

 this Pass not having been cleared of snow since the opening of 

 the St. Gothard Railway. We slept at Realp, the highest 

 village in Switzerland except Miirren. Next day we left 

 Realp early, and found men hard at work clearing the 

 Furka road of snow, which they had done to within twenty 

 minutes' walk of the Hospice ; but in places where it had 

 been only partially cleared, we walked between walls of snow 

 10 feet high. When we got within fifty yards or so of the 

 Hospice, we were delighted to see Snow Finches flying all 

 about, and perched on the roofs of the buildings, singing 

 gaily. Arrived at the Hospice, which was as yet only 

 inhabited by two men and some St. Bernard dogs, we pro- 

 cured a rickety old ladder, which we put up against one of 

 the outhouses under the roof of which we saw a Snow Finch 

 fly in ; and there I found the nest, placed on the top of the 

 wall of the building, covered by the roof : it was finished, but 

 contained no eggs. We tried four more nests, all placed 

 under the slates, the old birds sometimes perching quite close 

 to us, piping vigorously and much excited. Some of these 

 nests were not yet finished, and none contained eggs. One 

 nest, built in a hole in the tower of the Hospice itself, we 

 were able to look right into from a window on the first floor ; 

 it was a very large nest, quite finished, and it was afterwards 

 brought to me. Besides this nest, we only found one 

 which was not under the eaves, and that was placed in 

 a hole in a wall made of stones, the bird entering by a very 

 small aperture, so that we had to remove several stones to get at 



