160 Mr. H. Saunders on Birds 



and other Alpine creatures, visiting a few museums on my 

 way there and back. In those of Bienne, Soleure, and 

 Fribourg, nothing particular was noticed, ornithologically ; 

 while the collection at Berne is too well-known to call for 

 special remark, Zand's Museum of Alpine animals in the 

 last-named city is, perhaps, woi'th a visit, though Zand is 

 now very old, and his groups are dusty and faded. The 

 same may be said of the once-famed Stauffer's Museum at 

 Lucerne, which is no longer up to its former reputation. At 

 Zurich the collection in the Polytechnic is decidedly good, and 

 contains examples of some valuable exotic species. The finest 

 museum on modern lines is, however, at St. Gall, where 

 the initiative of the late Dr. Girtanner has been ably 

 seconded by his son, to whom I was introduced ; while the 

 local specimens of birds are mounted by Mr. E. Zollikofer, 

 who is not merely a skilled taxidermist, but an artist whose 

 soul is in his profession. The groups of Wall-Creepers on 

 the rock (in the Museum and at Dr. Girtanner's house) ; the 

 Scops Owl recoiling in consternation before a beetle which, 

 on being disturbed from its hiding-place, looks as if from its 

 size it might prove an awkward customer : these and many 

 others are works of art, and are of themselves worth a visit 

 to the quaint old town — though it, too, has been much 

 modernized since my last visit, twenty-eight years ago. 



At Coire there is a very good local collection of birds, 

 amongst which is an example of Vanellus cayennensis killed 

 in the Grisons a few years since : probably escaped from con- 

 finement, though how it got so far up the Rhine valley is a 

 mystery. In addition to fine specimens of the usual series 

 of mammals, are the last Ibexes, all young, killed in 1888. 

 The birds observed in the Prattigau are mentioned in my 

 notes. In October I came back to Lake Leman and settled 

 at Vevey, where this paper was written. There I obtained 

 some really trustworthy information from Mr. Eric Grand 

 d'Hauteville, who, though utill at school, has succeeded in 

 mounting a very interesting little collection of birds in life- 

 like attitudes, evidently the result of patient study of their 

 habits. 



