2fOG Hoffmann, Summer Birds of the Rhine. Tocf 



coverts. One songster in particular led me a long and fruitless 

 chase, but I was more fortunate when I heard him again the next 

 morning. At the foot of the hill, when I descended on the other 

 side, I found a garden and orchard through which ran a brook. 

 This seemed a favorable place for observation and so it proved to 

 be. Several Flycatchers darted from their perches, to return 

 with their booty ; Brown Creepers climbed the trunks of the 

 apple trees, whispering to each other as stridently as they do 

 here in winter, and differing apparently from ours only in the lack 

 of a trinomial name. They were convoyed too, as ours are, by Tit- 

 mice, larger and handsomer than the Chickadee, but very similar 

 in habits. On the garden walls or on the roofs of the houses sat 

 Redstarts, fine bluish gray birds with brick red tails, which they 

 snapped like Phoebes. From the vineyards and from the hill- 

 sides came the fine, thin notes of the Yellow-hammer, and in 

 the village on the river banks, Swallows flew close to the pave- 

 ments, turning the sharp corners, and passing in and out among 

 the people with surprising ease. 



The nearest of the Siebengebirge to the Rhine is the famous 

 Drachenfels, which in fact rises from its banks, and is crowned 

 with the most interesting ruin of the lower Rhine. This I climbed 

 the next day, and was rewarded by the beauty of the foot-way 

 and by the charming prospect from the top. A little larch and 

 spruce grew on the rocky summit and here I found my second 

 Titmouse, of the half-dozen which I saw in Germany. This was 

 the Swamp Tit, very like our Chickadee in color; he was holding 

 a seed on a limb and opening it. Here, too, I heard again my 

 elusive songster of the previous day. He was concealed in some 

 shrubbery near the top of the crag, but his song was loud and 

 wild and very fine ; finally he came into view and proved to be 

 the Blackcap, who among songbirds is rated very close to his 

 cousin, the Nightingale. 



Near the restaurant by which every interesting spot is crowned, 

 or infested, according as the traveller's inclinations are prosaic 

 or romantic, was a little yard where a bird was feeding, who 

 at once attracted my attention by his fine colors and tame dispo- 

 sition. He was a Chaffinch, the characteristic bird of the streets 

 and yards, sharing with the House Sparrow the society and sup- 



