Pine- Forests. 103 



the insects which it seeks in the crevices have to 

 be rummaged for with the bill itself, and conveyed 

 in some mysterious manner to the tongue, which 

 does not reach much more than half way down it. 

 Perhaps this may partly account for a statement 

 made to me by Anderegg, and positively insisted 

 on by him, that the bird loses the end of its bill 

 every autumn, regaining it in the course of the 

 winter. I am not in a position either to accept or 

 refute this story. Anderegg declared that he had 

 sent Professor Fatio specimens in order to prove 

 it ; but the Professor, who has studied the bird 

 carefully, has not, so far as I know, drawn atten- 

 tion to any such peculiarity. I am inclined to 

 think the truth may lie in the liability of the bird 

 to wear away or even break the tip of its bill in 

 the course of its indefatigable efforts to obtain 

 food, and I have seen a specimen in the Bern 

 Museum whose broken bill may possibly be a 

 confirmation of this explanation. The peasant 

 mind is apt enough to elevate an accidental cir- 

 cumstance into a law of nature. 



We must now leave region No. 3 altogether, 

 and descend from the Engstlen-alp westwards 



