The Engstlen-Alp, 99 



and the other species which I might have ex- 

 pected to meet, the Blue-headed Wagtail (Mota- 

 cilla flava, Linn.), did not once offer himself to 

 my field-glass, nor did his near relative, our 

 common Yellow Wagtail of spring and summer. 

 But it is time that we should leave the pastures 

 and make an expedition into the higher region 

 of rock and snow. There is of course but little 

 bird-life there, but that little is interesting. The 

 best way is to go straight up the steep grass- 

 slopes to the north-west of the inn, which are 

 carpeted in June with millions of fragrant pansies 

 and gentians, until we arrive, after a climb of 

 some 1500 feet, at a little hollow filled with snow 

 and limestone boulders, and having on one side 

 a precipitous wall of rock, and on the other a 

 series of upward-sloping stretches of snow, inter- 

 spersed with patches of rock and short grass. 

 Early in the season, when this desolate region 

 is still quite undisturbed, you may find occupation 

 if you lie in wait awhile. In my first walk here, 

 no sooner did I reach this hollow, than a badger 

 got up about ten yards from me and shuffled 

 away behind some boulders ; and while following 



II 2 



