•?o8 Hoffmann, Summer Birds of the Rhine. [.Oct. 



woodland bands that I almost expected to hear the lazy trill of a 

 Pine Warbler from the American pines which had been planted 

 there. There were Titmice, not only the two acquaintances I had 

 made among the Siebengebirge, but three other species as well ; 

 the Coal Tit, also resembling our species ; one individual of the 

 strange Long-tailed Tit, his body smaller than a Kinglet's with a 

 tail three-fifths as long again ; and the charming little Blue Tit. 

 This Tit was rarely quiet and hardly ever right side up. Side by 

 side with the Tits worked a Nuthatch, very closely resembling our 

 Canadian species, though nearly as large as Sitta carolinensis. In 

 winter the company includes Kinglets, which breed, in Germany, 

 in forests of spruce and fir. Instead of our Warblers and 

 Vireos there were Wood Wrens and Willow Wrens, small birds 

 related to the Kinglets. Chaffinches and a Flycatcher took the 

 places of the Snowbirds and Phoebe, which might share our 

 woodland with such a crew. Here and there in the wood were 

 moist ledges where water dripped past nodding harebells into a 

 small fishpond below ; here I saw Redbreasts, shyer than I had 

 expected, staring at me with large eyes which betrayed their 

 kinship to Bluebird and Thrush. 



In the afternoon, I took a little tug which puffed across the swift 

 current and landed me under the shadow of the Ruine Katz. A 

 path led up the rocky ridge to the entrance of the ruin. My 

 former experience warned me that I should have the company of 

 a guide, if I entered that way, so I took the liberty of climbing the 

 hill behind the castle and scaling the wall which protected the 

 rear. The great court in the centre of the ruin was overgrown 

 with bushes and trees ; ladders led half way up the round tower 

 which I climbed, but startled no Owls from their ruined retreats. 

 A pair of fine Falcons, as large as the Peregrine, swept past me 

 later, and I was told that they bred on the tower. A Buteo was 

 circling in the sky and later I saw a small Hawk, perhaps a 

 Kestrel, hovering over the river. Leaving the ruin, I climbed 

 back with some difficulty. The hill, or Rhine bank, rose for 

 about a hundred feet above the spur on which the ruin stood. 

 The poverty of the soil lent an Alpine character to the vegeta- 

 tion ; the hill was bright with yellow sedums, pinks, various 

 flowers of the gorse family, and the first purple blooms of the 



