Birds of the Pijrenees. 71 



rounded and cultivated up to the woods. The whole valley 

 was full of electric-lighted factories, worked by water-power, 

 and, as Feilden remarked, it was a superior Lancashire, without 

 the smoke, and with snowy mountains in the background. 

 Dippers, Sandpipers and Grey Wagtails were frequent 

 along the torrents; the Wheatear, Robin, Redstart, Wren, 

 Hedge-Sparrow and Yellow Hammer were more or less 

 common ; the Choughs belonged to the red-billed species, 

 and the only un-English bird was the Meadow-Bunting. 

 By a good road, made since the last Carlist war, we crossed 

 the Sierra de Cadi — the first line of the Pyrenees — by the Col 

 de Tosas (5800 ft.), with fine views of the Puigmal and La 

 Nuria ; the chief ornithological features being the Red Rock- 

 Thrush, which was hovering in the way that Mr. Wallis has 

 described, and the Water-Pipit, which became abundant as 

 we ascended. The wind was bitter, and there was evidently 

 snow or rain ready to come down, but we accomplished the 

 slight descent to the frontier town of Puigcerda (4000 ft.) 

 without a wetting. Built in terraces with gardens and 

 orchards, on the side of a hill above a fertile plain and with 

 mountains all round at convenient distances, Puigcerda is 

 not only very picturesque, but is also well suited as head- 

 quarters for a naturalist, or for a fisherman who does not 

 expect too much ; but at this time the three rivers which 

 unite at the bridge of Soler, and which undoubtedly contain 

 trout, were full of snow-water, and no trout would rise to a 

 fly with the prevailing bitter wind. When that dropped or 

 shifted we had rain, sleet or snow, as the case might be. At 

 the foot of the hill and just across the little river Raur, 

 about a mile off, is the small French frontier town or village 

 of Bourg-Madarae, whence a high road runs eastward to 

 Mont Louis, while another goes northward just within the 

 French frontier, and crosses the Col de Puymorens to Ax- 

 les-Thermes. From Puigcerda we intended to proceed west- 

 ward, by La Seo de Urgel, into Aragon, but on the night of 

 the 22nd very heavy snow began to fall and continued 

 almost without intermission till Sunday, 21th, when matters 

 began to look a little brighter. Any retreat into Spain was 



