110 



Bird Notes and News 



appear to disturb them, and a pretty little 

 Sandpiper pokes about quite near us most 

 unconcernedly. Perhaps they are used to 

 being watched by their devoted friend 

 M. Alfred Richard, who visits this spot 

 continually and is able to tell us how many 

 birds of each species halt at La Sauge during 

 their long journey twice a year. His notes 

 are published in the magazine of the Societe 

 Romande pour la Protection des Oiseaux, 

 of which he is the Secretary, and give a very 

 complete account of the bird-life of the 

 lake. 



Unwillingly we leave behind the pretty 

 waders and the cry of the Lapwings, but 

 a further pleasure awaits us on our way 

 back to Neuchatel : a pair of Goosanders are 

 standing at the end of a long stone breakwater 

 built to keep the lake from silting up, and the 

 handsome black and white plumage of the 

 male and the brown of his mate are a perfect 

 picture as we approach. There are a fair 

 number of these birds on the lake, and they 

 are unmolested, their flesh not being con- 

 sidered worth eating. 



If we follow the south-eastern shore of the 

 lake from La Sauge to Yverdon we shall 

 find that the alders growing on the flat 

 ground at the foot of the cliffs are the haunt 

 of a great number of small birds. Here the 

 little migrants, Willow-Wren, Chiffchaff, 

 Warblers and Nightingales, find a quiet 

 paradise in which to breed ; and their notes 

 are the only sounds to be heard along mile 

 after mile of the straight track that runs 

 between the bushes. Their only enemies are 

 the cats that have taken up their quarters 

 in some hole in the cliff, and the hawks that 

 circle slowly against the blue. So the little 

 Willow-Wren repeats his gentle, delicate 



song by the quiet water from dawn to eve 

 through the long May days, and the Great 

 Reed- Warbler croaks a good deal more 

 noisily and less musically among the tall reeds 

 near the few landing stages along the shore, 

 choosing these spots in preference to more 

 retired nooks and corners. He is a lively 

 fellow, swinging gaily on the tallest reeds, 

 a good-sized bird, and with a good-sized 

 voice, more like a frog's than any other bird 

 I have heard. The smaller Reed- Warbler is 

 also heard, and one can spend hours wander- 

 ing among the alders in pursuit of an elusive 

 bird-voice that leads you on and on over 

 marshy ground and through the bramble and 

 wild roses. 



Tired and hot you sit down on one of the 

 boulders that lie scattered along the shore, 

 and an unknown call makes you look up 

 and see, showing white against the sky, 

 a group of wild Geese flying northwards, 

 or surely those are the long outstretched 

 legs of Storks. Poor Storks ! their homes 

 in Alsace are no quiet ones this year, and 

 perhaps it was owing to fire and sword beyond 

 the Jura that a pair settled down near 

 Yverdon last spring in marshy land not far 

 from the lake and there reared their young, 

 a thing they had not done in Switzerland 

 for the last 50 years. 



The good work done on the lake of 

 Neuchatel is bearing fruit in other cantons, 

 and the lake of Geneva, thanks to the efforts 

 of the " Societe Romande," now possesses 

 two bird-reservations where swimmers and 

 waders may find a haven in which to multiply 

 in peace. A great step has thus been made 

 in bird-protection and towards saving some 

 very beautiful forms of life that were fast 

 disappearing in Switzerland. 



