NOTES PROM SWITZERLAND. 375 



Cuckoo. In au opening in a wood a huge bird passed slowly 

 over us at no great height, enabling me to see it frequently from 

 below with my glass. This I believe to have been a Golden 

 Eagle, Aqidla chrysaetus, for my guide, who knows the bird well, 

 saw one near the Engstlen-Alp the same day. I afterwards saw 

 one alive in a cage on the Wengeru-Alp. 



June 29th.— Joch-pass. Heard the Chiffchaff on the 

 Pfaflfenwand, more than 5000 ft. above the sea. In these higher 

 regions a Pipit is abundant, which, I feel pretty sure, is Anthus 

 spinoletta (Linn.). It frequented well-watered pastures, and would 

 perch on stones, or on the very top twig of a pine, and to the best 

 of my belief was neither A. pratensis nor arboreus. More 

 puzzling was a bird which my observant old guide, who now 

 joined us, called an " Alpen-lerch ;" this bird made a trilling noise 

 when silting on a stone, and would then mount and sing on the 

 wing. A skin since forwarded to me by the guide proves this to 

 be Accentor alpinm. It was abundant on and about the Joch- 

 pass, where I hope to give special attention another season. 



My guide wrote of this bird : " The brown bird I sent you is 

 called here in our common speech ' Bliemtrittel ; ' it has this name 

 because, when it is in the valley (i.e., in winter), it often haunts 

 barns, and there picks up the ' Bliem ' — that is, the blossom-dust 

 that is found under every heap of hay. In the books (schrift- 

 weise) it is called ' Alpenlerche.' Old Professor Dollfus used to 

 call it ' the tourists' guide,' because we see it in summer on the 

 high mountains, which, like the tourists, it leaves in winter for 

 the lower grounds. I shot the specimen I sent you close to my 

 own house (just out of Meiringen) at the beginning of January. 

 We saw the bird on the Engstlen-alp when you were with me last 

 summer. It sits usually on a stone, where it sings with a sweet 

 voice ; it does not sing on the wing. [This, I think, is a mistake. 

 W. W. F.] It builds its nest among rocks and stones in the 

 mountains in the summer ; the nest is of moss, and the hen bird 

 lays, I believe, beautiful pale blue eggs. When it is in the valley 

 in winter, we find it sometimes here and sometimes there, but the 

 one I sent you is the only specimen I have seen this winter. 

 The reason of this is no doubt to be found in the beautiful mild 

 weather we have been having, which has enabled the little things 

 to make a long stay in the mountains. — Johann Anderegg. 

 Meiringen, Feb. 34th, 1884." [Translation.] 



