32 Transactions of the [Sess. 



PhcKnicoptera). I first saw tliis bird at Clmr, in the Grisons can- 

 ton. I was standing at the hotel door on the 28th August, when 

 a bird flitted by me which at once aroused my attention and curi- 

 osity, as it was clearly one I had never before seen. Its peculiar 

 jerking flight in the bright sun and clear Swiss atmosphere dis- 

 played its delicate grey body and brilliant crimson wings to the 

 greatest advantage. The wings have white spots on them, and 

 the tail is black tipped with white. It settled against the hotel, 

 and, clinging with its claws to the perpendicular wall, traversed 

 the whole length of the building with a creeping lateral motion, 

 which reminded me of our Nuthatch, and probed with its sharp- 

 pointed bill all the interstices between the stones in its search for 

 spiders and their eggs, to which it is particularly partial, spread- 

 ing out very frequently its pretty and unique crimson wings. So 

 intent was the bird on its occupation that it allowed us to approach 

 close, and watch and admire it for some time. I could not find any 

 one there to tell me the name of the bird, beyond that it was called 

 the " Specht," which I thought might be synonymous with our 

 word " spectre," from the light colour of the bird ; but it appears the 

 word " Specht " is used in Germany to denote both the Wall-Creeper 

 and also the Woodpecker. Afterwards, on visiting the museum at 

 Lucerne, I saw many stuffed specimens of this interesting subject 

 of our observation, and ascertained the correct specific name. A 

 few days afterwards, while walking from Airolo on our return from 

 the Italian lakes over the St Gothard Pass, and at a very high ele- 

 vation — indeed just as we were entering the clouds — another of these 

 pretty birds flew over my head, and settled in a fissure in a rock, 

 where I feel sure it had a nest, but the precipitous nature of the rock 

 forbade my great desire to examine the spot. The Wall-Creeper is, 

 I find, strictly European, and is found in mountainous districts in 

 all the middle and southern portions of the Continent, and frequents 

 the naked and precipitous parts of the most elevated mountains, 

 among which it is seen flitting from crevice to crevice in search of 

 food. It does not use the tail as a support, as our common Creeper 

 and Woodpeckers do, but clings with its tenacious claws unaided 

 to the rough rocks, in the same manner as our Nuthatch does to 

 the rough bark of trees. It moults twice in the year, in spring and 

 autumn. The two sexes are much alike in markings, except that 

 after the spring moult the male assumes a black patch on the 

 throat. Crimson, I need scarcely remark, is a very uncommon 

 colour in the plumage of our indigenous birds. I can call to mind 

 only three whicli have this shade, and it is solely on their heads — 

 viz., the Redpoll, the Goldfinch, and the Woodpecker. With the 

 Wall-Creeper, however, crimson is the predominant colour ; and 

 its habit of so frequently expanding its beautiful wings as it creeps 

 along the walls and rocks renders it a most attractive object, even 



