76 The Alps in June. 



numbers ; the birds are more obvious from their 

 comparative rarity ; and their voices are not lost, 

 as is sometimes the case with us, in a general 

 and unceasing chorus. As regards the number of 

 species in the country, I have never seen an 

 accurate computation of it. But looking over 

 Mr. Dresser's very useful catalogue of the Birds 

 of Europe, I calculate roughly that it would 

 amount to about three hundred in all ; i. e. less 

 by some seventy or eighty than the avi-fauna of 

 the British Islands. This is, however, a remark- 

 ably large number for a country that possesses 

 no sea-board and very few of those sea-birds 

 which form so large a contingent in our wonder- 

 ful British list ; and it suggests a few remarks on 

 the causes which bring some birds to the Alps 

 periodically, and have tempted others to make 

 them their permanent home. 



The greatest attractions for birds, and therefore 

 the chief agents as far as our present knowledge 

 reaches in inducing birds to move from place to 

 place are food and variety of temperature. Now 

 in the Alps we find these conditions of bird-life 

 everywhere present, except, of course, in the very 



