78 Mr. H. M. Wallis on the Birds 



60. Cypselus apus (Linu,). 



Swifts were wheeling above Argeles-Vieuzac late in May. 

 We lost them on entering the narrow gorge above Pierrefitte, 

 missed them at St. Sauveur and Luz and Gavarnie, but 

 found them again over the quaint tiled roofs of Torla, a 

 dozen miles on the Spanish side. 



61. Cypselus melba (Linn.) . 



The absence of Swifts of either species among the moun- 

 tains on the French side surprised me. Such noticeable 

 birds could hardly be overlooked, for during the last week in 

 May and the first three in June I was daily among cliffs 

 which seemed suited to them, but, whatever the Aveather, none 

 were there. Even the astonishing pinnacles and minarets of 

 creviced limestone in the Valle de Ara were untenanted, save 

 the Salarou, around the dizzy summit of which a pair of Alpine 

 Swifts where wheeling, with their nesting-hole a thousand 

 feet below. From the woods beneath it seemed near the 

 top ; from the top it appeared in the basement ; it would 

 be difficult to visit. The pair seemed unused to visitors 

 and swept in narrow rings around my head, like rushing 

 bullets. 



Among the Common Swifts circling above Torla church I 

 noticed a pair of C. melba. 



62. Caprimulgus EUROPiEus, Linu. 



I saw a Nightjar at St. Sauveur, and another in Valle de 

 Ara, about 5000 feet. 



63. Picus MARTius, Linn. 



I had never the luck to see the Great Black Woodpecker, 

 although I suspected its neighbourhood from seeing how 

 roughly some of the timber in the Valle de Ara had been 

 handled. The morning I left the valley I noticed a noble 

 spruce perforated by rectangular holes, much too large for 

 any other European Woodpecker, supposing other species to 

 cut square holes. 



64. Gecinus viRiDis (Linu.). 



We saw Green Woodpeckers near Argeles-Vieuzac and 

 elsewhere on the French side. The cry of some Woodpecker 



