180 Mr. H. Saunders on Birds 



Catalogue; of these, 57 examples are existent in various 

 museums and private collections. Whenever a bird is seen 

 every possible eflFort is made to obtain it, as it fetches a high 

 price, and ere long this species vrill have ceased to be indi- 

 genous in Switzerland. The last example obtained was a 

 bird found poisoned near Viege (Visp), in the Valais, about 

 the end of February 1886 ; it now occupies a central posi- 

 tion in the Museum at Lausanne. It is said that this was 

 an old female (there is very little red on the breast) which 

 had been known for 20 or 25 years as nesting on the 

 Bietsch-horn ; but the curious thing is that the chasseurs 

 of the Yalais knew of no other Bearded Vulture, although, 

 if she nested, she must have had a mate. A certain 

 Benedict Henzen has furnished some wonderful notes : — 

 how he saw a Bearded Vulture attack a child, which had to 

 lie down flat and hold on to the rocks to avoid being dragged 

 (enframe) over a precipice, while a man who came to the 

 rescue with a loaded gun was driven by the attacks of the 

 bird to take refuge in a hut ; how another carried off a kid 

 three months old ; how, in 1870, a lamb, also belonging to 

 Henzen, was carried from the Griitene to the Stockgraben, 

 where it remained bleating for two days until the Bearded 

 Vulture *' revint le chercher '' : — beyond which deponent 

 sayeth not. Dr. E. de Fellenberg, who contributed these 

 notes to the Catalogue in 1887, says that he has no reason 

 to doubt these and similar statements ; but those who have 

 examined the weak feet and toes of the above species will 

 form their own opinion as to his credulity ! 



The Museum of St. Gall possesses a superb and probably 

 unrivalled series of Bearded Vultures, from various parts of 

 Europe, Asia, and Africa, formed by the Drs. Girtanner. 



Circus iERUGiNosus (Linn.). 



The authors of the Catalogue say that the Marsh-Harrier 

 is never found in Switzerland during the winter ; but on 

 February 26th I had an excellent view of a bird of this 

 species — apparently an immature female — beating over a 

 marshy creek near St. Sulpice, on Lake Leman. It was 



