ii To the Engstlen Alp once more 31 



if you lie quiet, may come quite close to you. He 

 is not so handsome a bird as our Green Woodpecker ; 

 the colour he shows you is chiefly gray, with con- 

 spicuous yellow above the tail. 



But it is time to begin our walk from Meiringen 

 to the Engstlen Alp, and to escape, if we can, from 

 the swarms of horse-flies which have been distracting 

 us in every attempt to hold the glass steadily while 

 looking at a bird ; for in a warm June Switzerland 

 has its drawbacks as well as its delights. With 

 these was a larger bee-like fly, the bite of which was 

 no light matter ; and in 1893 these two pests were 

 not only in the valleys, but at six and even seven 

 thousand feet were still there to tease us, though in 

 diminished numbers. Fortunately we found many 

 insects on our route of a more friendly disposition. 

 Butterflies showed themselves in marvellous num- 

 bers, if not in great variety. Before we began the 

 first steep ascent, the Camberwell Beauty and the 

 two species of Swallowtails, with the larger of the 

 two Apollos, were the most conspicuous ; then the 

 Black-veined White (now almost extinct in England, 

 though I used to catch it in Wales some thirty 

 years ago), and the delicate little Wood White ; 

 Fritillaries, Arguses, and Einglets were also in 

 abundance. 



But the most astonishing of them all, in numbers 

 at least, was the tiny little Bedford Blue (Polyom- 



