3O Summer Studies of Birds and Books CHAP. 



crimson. This occurred twice, and it would be hard to 

 get a better view." l It was a delightful moment, for 

 this bird is perhaps the most singular, and in some ways 

 the most beautiful, in all Europe. It is the Crimson- 

 winged Wall-creeper (Tichodroma muraria), which I 

 had looked for repeatedly in places where it was 

 said to breed, with no such good success as I met 

 with on the last day of June. This bird, we felt 

 sure, was feeding young when we saw it, and those 

 young ones may be there next summer to greet the 

 eyes of travellers. 



We then followed the road to the pass, and 

 leaving it there, we took a delightful route along the 

 heights to the little hamlet of Hohfliih. This is the 

 " fatherland " of the Woodpeckers ; and you may 

 almost always hear the loud cry of the Great Black 

 Woodpecker high among the pines, even if you fail 

 to see him ; and if you will but wait a while among 

 the ancient mossy sycamores, you can hardly fail to 

 see the gray species (Picus canus), which is a total 

 stranger to most Englishmen. This last bird has a 

 hoarse cry which he repeats again and again as he 

 nears you ; he thus lets you know where he is, and, 



1 The crimson is on the wing-coverts, not on the quills ; it is there- 

 fore visible even when the wings are folded. There is a well-known 

 insect of the locust kind in the Alps which wears the same colours as 

 the Wall-creeper, ash-gray and crimson ; but in this case the crimson 

 is only visible when the creature is in motion. When it alights 

 on a slaty rock, the gray colour acts as an infallible protection. 



