NOTES IN FEANCE AND SWITZERLAND. 59 



Goldcrest had lost a number of wing-quills. On August 17th 

 two broods of Black Eedstarts haunted a manure heap, two doors 

 from the post-office, in company with immature Chaffinches and 

 Yellow Buntings ; the youngest Eedstarts were weak on the 

 wing, and were partly supported by their parents. The youngest 

 disliked the drizzling rain as much as did the elderly birds deep 

 in moult. On the 18th I particularly noticed a male Kedstart 

 on the outskirt of Interlaken. His chest was literally naked. 

 The feathers of the lower parts were darker than in the Auvergne 

 nestling (which had died) ; both birds wore the yellow membrane 

 of nestlings on the beak. On August 28th, in very bad weather, 

 my spirits rose at a strange cry near the Kurhaus ; a wary 

 Nutcracker shortly afterwards flew from tree top to tree top near 

 me. Another which settled in a fir on the valley side below the 

 road suggested the Book in outline, the long beak reminding me 

 roughly of the Kingfisher. Taking a "header" downwards, he 

 rose as he approached a second tree ; once landed, he plumed 

 his mottled dress, sprang lightly from bough to bough, and 

 repeated many times a melody composed of the syllable " yerk," 

 repeated each time that he performed, from five to eight times in 

 close succession, while his throat vibrated visibly. Between this 

 date and September 4th, Nutcrackers often passed our windows, 

 flying from fir top to fir top. They appeared to leave the higher 

 belt of fir in order to forage for nuts at a lower elevation. During 

 flight the white extremities of the tail feathers are clearly seen. 

 Despite the drizzling downfall of August 27th, an extremely 

 large party of Titmice worked up the bushes on the right bank 

 of the Alpenrose watercourse. Long-tailed Tits were as numerous 

 as Blue, Great, or Cole ; all, with one or two exceptions, shewed 

 the pure white head of Acredula caudata ; the exception or 

 exceptions as certainly possessed the black stripes seen on the 

 head of an ordinary example of our bird, A. rosea. Two Long- 

 tailed Tits, the only members of a large party that I could 

 examine closely, on the Bhone's right bank, 5th October, dis- 

 tinctly wore the black stripes of A. rosea, instead of the white 

 head worn by all but one (or two) of the Beatenberg examples. 

 I saw one of these Geneva birds pick off and eat a small cater- 

 pillar. Black Eedstarts and Blackcaps were at Geneva on 

 October 5th. As I returned from the snow-wrapt Gemmel Alp, 

 September 2nd, a Crested Tit flew past me on the edge of the 



