Some ''Bir^v)" IRambles in lEurope. 



By Sidney H. SNKr.i., M.D. 



I am proposing to give under this heading some 

 notes on birds which I have observed during various 

 holiday rambles in Europe. The question had often 

 presented itself to my mind as to what extent anyone 

 acquainted onh' with British birds would be interested 

 in or conversant with the birds to be encountered on 

 the usual French, Swiss, German, Austrian and Italian 

 tours. The reader of these notes will find that question 

 answered to a large extent, but they make no pretence 

 to being anything more than observations on birds 

 seen during generally rapid travels through, or brief 

 sojourns in, the parts named. 



On our country walks our method — for my wife is 

 associated with me in these observations — is that each 

 of us is armed with powerful field glasses, and if we 

 wish to observe and verify a particular bird, perhaps 

 singing on some outlying bush or tree, we approach, 

 if practicable, by two different routes, when one of us 

 nearly always gets a good view. In this way we often 

 see the birds just as well as if they had been shot and 

 were in the hand. Added to this, the notes of all the 

 smaller birds in the British list are well known to us, 

 so that it may be taken that although no birds were 

 killed for the purpose any birds mentioned were 

 verified beyond any reasonable doubt. 



Let us take first a trip we have just completed, the 

 general scheme of which was through France to Genoa, 

 Rome, Florence and Venice, then up to the Austrian 

 Tyrol, and home via Zurich. Of these, the longest stay, 

 and by far the most fruitful ornithologically was at 

 lunsbriick in the Tvrol. 



