102 ' 'The* Alps in June. 



the midst of a snow-field or a glacier ; * for when 

 the rock is exposed to the sun, the heat generated 

 is too great either to allow the bird to work, or 

 the insects it seeks to remain in the crevices. To 

 those who have not seen it, it may best be 

 described as in shape almost exactly like our com- 

 mon little Tree-creeper, the only other European 

 representative of the family, but larger, and instead 

 of its cousin's sober brown plumage, presenting 

 such an exquisite contrast of colour as is hardly 

 to be found even among the fauna of the tropics. 

 Its head, neck, and back, are soft ash-gray, and 

 when its wings are closed you would hardly dis- 

 tinguish it from the gray rock to which it clings ; 

 but in an instant, as it begins half to climb and 

 half to flutter from crevice to crevice, you will 

 see the brilliant crimson of its lesser quill-feathers 

 standing out, not unlike the underwings of a well- 

 known moth, against that delicate gray. Its bill 

 is long and slender, but strange to say, it is with- 

 out the long tongue, that wonderful far-darter, 

 with which the wood-peckers are provided ; so 



1 E.g. on the rocks about the Devil's Bridge near Ander- 

 matt, or on those of the Gemmi-pass. 



