II To the Engstlen Alp once more 43 



discovered their nesting-place, and saw young birds 

 in immature plumage, with the bill black instead 

 of yellow, and black feet instead of red. They are 

 nearly always to be found here, appearing suddenly 

 as I have described ; and they are so tame that, if 

 you lie still, and if no tourist happens just then to 

 be descending from the Joch, you may have forty or 

 fifty walking or hovering about you. 



We are apt to associate the huge mountain- walls 

 of Switzerland with birds that are themselves huge, 

 — with the Lammergeier, the Golden Eagle, and the 

 larger Hawks. But, however it may have been 

 in the past, these mighty robbers are not now the 

 characteristic birds of the highest alps ; a few 

 Buzzards and Kestrels, with here and there a Eaven, 

 are all that as a rule the climber will meet with in 

 a day's work. The typical bird of the peaks and 

 glaciers is undoubtedly the Alpine Chough. He is 

 the weather-prophet of the hunter in winter and of 

 the guide in summer ; he is thought by some guides 

 to be a bird of ill omen : he is apt to come upon 

 you suddenly when you are in difficulties on some 

 stone-swept couloir or brittle ariU} He may be 

 with you on the highest peaks — on the summit of 

 Monte Eosa or the Finsteraarhorn. He may make 

 a meal to-morrow on the relics of the supper you 



1 My informant is the Rev. "W. A. B. Coolidge, Secretary of the 

 Alpine Club. 



