observed in Switzerland. 1 79 



(Glaucidium passerinum) is chiefly known, in Switzerland, 

 as an inhabitant of the forests of the Grisons, though it may 

 perhaps range for some distance northwards along the Rhine 

 valley, Mr. E. Zollikofer, of St. Gall, has a cageful of these 

 amusing little birds, one of which has laid many eggs. 



Readers of this journal will be aware that Drs. V. Fatio 

 and Th. Studer have published an excellent Catalogue of the 

 diurnal birds of prey, with coloured maps showing their 

 distribution {cf. Ibis, 1889, p. 394). Of this I have availed 

 myself in the following remarks on some of the rarer or 

 more interesting Swiss species of Raptores. 



Gyps fulvus (J. F. Gmelin). 



About a dozen occurrences of the Griflfon-Vulture are on 

 record, and local examples are in the museums of Berne, 

 Sion, and Coire ; another from the Grisons being at Schaff- 

 hausen. The Coire bird is immature and was killed in 

 October or November ; most of the others were shot in May 

 and June. No Swiss breeding-place is known. 



Two examples of the Black Vulture [Vultur monachus) are 

 said to have been shot near Pfiiffers and Sargans, in the 

 valley of the Rhine, about 1848-49, but no Swiss specimen 

 is in existence. 



Neophron percnopterus (Linn.). 



The Egyptian Vulture has long been known to nest regularly 

 on Mont Sal^ve, just within French territory, but immediately 

 above Geneva ; and further south, in Savoy, it has several 

 breeding-places. M. Alfred Vaucher, whose acquaintance I 

 made, has given some interesting details in the above-men- 

 tioned Catalogue ; and he told me that there was little doubt 

 of the occasional nesting of this species still further north, 

 namely in the Jura. On Mont Saleve the birds are keenly 

 watched by collectors ; the nests are robbed nearly every 

 year, and, what is worse, the owners are often shot. 



Gypaetus barbatus (Linn.). 



Between 1801 and 1887 eighty-eight occurrences of the 

 Bearded Vulture arc recorded in Messrs. Fatio and Studer^s 



