EEED-BED AT STANZ-STADT, 53 



thai, or along the pastures that look down on it from the 

 north, — for there are three different ways, aU of them of the 

 rarest beauty — ^to the deep valley of the Aar, or HasU-thal, 

 where we arrive once more in region No. i. 



On reaching Stanz-stadt, I always take a turn along the road 

 that here forms a narrow causeway between two divisions of the 

 lake, and is bordered on one side for some distance by a broad 

 bed of reeds. Any ornithologist would see at once that some- 

 thing is in store for him here, and if I had had time or patience 

 to stay here in the heat, I might probably have seen more than 

 I did see. The Bittern occasionally visits these reeds, for the 

 landlord of the inn showed me a very fine specimen which he 

 himself had shot. They are also the summer residence of those 

 Warblers which love reeds, and which abound much more on 

 the reedier lakes of Sarnen and Lungern and those of Biel and 

 Neuchitel. On my last visit to Stanz-stadt, my companion being 

 in a hurry to get into cooler climes, I had only a quarter of an 

 hour to spend on this bit of road; but my ear instantly caught 

 the song of our Eeed-warbler, to which I had been listening for 

 many weeks at Oxford, while learning to distinguish it from that 

 of its near relation the Sedge- warbler. It was pleasant to hear 

 the familiar strain the very instant my long journey was over. 

 The Marsh-warbler, the Aquatic-warbler, and others of their 

 kind, are all to be seen by the rivers and lakes of our lowest 

 region (No. i), never ascending higher ; and he who has the 

 courage to spend a few days in the baking and biting valley of 

 the Ehone, for example, wUl find them all among the desolate 

 reed and willow-beds of that, to man, most inhospitable river. 



