158 Mr. H, Saunders on Birds 



able forests of the last being found a little liiglier up, espe- 

 cially on the roads to Berne and to Oron. Below Lausanne, 

 and along the lake towards Morges, the cultivated ground 

 contains much large timber and fine walnut-trees : attractive 

 to insectivorous birds. In the Museum is a fair collection of 

 local species ; also a larger one which formerly belonged to 

 the late M. Vouga, consisting of " European birds " so- 

 called, according to Degland and Gerbe's list ; but many of 

 the specimens are not Swiss, and some belong to species 

 which have never been seen in Switzerland, or even in the 

 Old World — for instance, the American Bald-headed Eagle. 

 Among its treasures are a mounted Alca impennis and an e^^ ; 

 there were formerly two eggs, but one was bartered for the 

 remains of a Gorilla ! Of course Geneva was visited, where 

 I had the pleasure of becoming acquainted with Dr. Victor 

 Fatio ; short excursions were made along Lake Leman and 

 up the Ehone valley as far as Brieg ; while, as regards 

 Lausanne, my friend Mr. Hermann Goll, Dr. Larguier, the 

 director, and M. Bastien, the curator of the Museum, assisted 

 me in various ways. 



The third week in April I went up to Chaux-de-Eonds, in 

 the Neuchatel Jura, to see M. Louis Nicoud, who has a 

 fine collection of eggs ; and, under the guidance of that 

 excellent field-naturalist, attempts were made, in very bad 

 weather, to find a nest of the Nutcracker — unsuccessfully, 

 as will be seen under my notes on that species. This visit, 

 however, induced me to migrate early in May to Neuchatel, 

 a very pretty, clean town, and one which, it is surprising 

 to find, is so little frequented by English visitors, as it 

 forms an excellent base for many interesting excursions. 

 Its Museum has a European celebrity among geologists, 

 owing to its association with Agassiz ; and the ornithological 

 gallery is of special interest to students of the Neo- 

 tropical Avifauna, inasmuch as it contains the famous 

 collection formed by the late J. J. von Tschudi, with 

 numerous types of the species first described by him from 

 Peru. The well-known director, M. Louis de Coulon, is 

 now compelled by age to renounce the active part he 



