160 An Ornithological Letter from Mentone. 



it, as Prof. Savi, in his ' Ornitologia Toscana/ mentions it as 

 a bird of rare occurrence there. 



Within a quarter of an hour's walk from our house is the 

 frontier-bridge of Pont St. Louis. One might, from the name, 

 expect to find a river flowing under the arch, and forming the 

 actual line of demarcation, or at least the stony bed where a 

 river might at times be supposed to flow ; but no ; precipitous 

 rocks, forming the sides of a fine gorge, are the real defences, 

 and the bridge is simply the means of bringing the cornice road 

 across its rugged mouth at the height of about 100 feet. Here 

 rock-loving bii'ds find every requisitefor their varied needs. The 

 WaW-ereeper {Tichodroma phoenicoptera) enjoys the perpendicular 

 faces of rock in the crannies of which abound the spiders and 

 larvae which it loves to probe after with its long bill. The Rock- 

 Martin [Hirundo rupestris) sweeps gracefully around the shel- 

 tered bays, where, in the coldest weather, it may find gnats and 

 other ephemera. The Blue Rock-Thrush {Petrocincla cyanea) 

 seeks the lonely points of inaccessible pillars of rock from which 

 he can guard warily against surprise ; and the Black Redstart 

 {Riiticilla tithys) leads a merry life among the loose drifts of 

 stones and the briary tangles of the lower hollows. The Rock- 

 creeper {Tichodroma phoenicoptera) , with the crimson-and-white 

 spotted wing, is fortunately a bird specially exposed to the scru- 

 tiny of the observer, his love of exposed surfaces of rock, and his 

 antipathy to long flights, allowing us even hours of undisturbed 

 examination. When seen flying, the impression conveyed us is 

 of a bat rather than a bird, the stroke of its wing being spas- 

 modic and laborious ; for this reason it soon approaches the 

 rocks, to which it applies itself as a fly might to the wall of a 

 room, and working up the surface by means of vertical jumps 

 (the wing being scarcely unfolded), in that way traverses spaces 

 of from 10 to 14 inches. It was not until I had a specimen in 

 my hand that I could imderstand how a body starting parallel 

 with the rock could be propelled upwards, contrary to the laws 

 of gravity. The apparatus is indeed remarkable, consisting of 

 the following: — a short strong tarsus ; three toes ^lYecieA forward, 

 having claws hooked for grappling — the central of these three 

 measuring yo*-^^^ °^ ^^^ inch, including its curved nail ; and lastly. 



