Ill Among the Birds in Wales 51 



Engelberg, with which I especially associate the 

 alpine bird ; for the songs of the two are much 

 alike, though the foreigner is bolder and stronger in 

 his flight, and louder and more continuous in his 

 strain. He and his song are in keeping with the 

 huge reach of the rocks and peaks around him ; the 

 height and range of his flight are great, and you 

 often search for him in vain, as the bell-like notes 

 come now from this side, now from that, or lose him, 

 after once catching sight of him against the sky, as 

 he descends to the ground in the shadow of some 

 dark precipice. But the English bird soon catches 

 your eye, and hovers near you if you are likely to 

 approach its nest; no mystery attends it, no great 

 mountain walls encompass it, nor does it mount far 

 away in air and " despise, the earth," like the Skylark 

 that was singing there too, away from all human 

 cultivation, a tiny speck against the light driving 

 clouds. 



There is a valley in this district, stretching far 

 away into the wildest moorland, of which the alpine 

 character is quite unmistakable. The hills rise 

 steeply from the swiftly- flowing river, and are in 

 many places clothed with dense plantations of pine 

 and larch ; above these again you come out on yet 

 steeper slopes of grass and fern, with gray silurian 

 rock jutting out in regular lines, or sometimes form- 

 ing precipices intersected by damp mossy gullies, 



