56 THE. ALPS IN JtrUE. 



sorty to part witli Mm m autumn, and canboi make out what 

 becomes of him. One of them told me that twenty-two of these 

 birds were once found in the winter fast asleep in a cluster, like 

 swarming beesy in the hollow trunk of a cherry-tree ; how far 

 the story was mythical, I will not venture to say. 



The Swallow tribe have been with us aU the way along 

 the valley, but they will follow us no further. Even at 

 Engelberg (3500 feet) they seem to be a little chilly in the 

 early summer. "When I first arrived there, in cold weather, 

 there was not a Swift to be seen; but one morning when 

 I woke I heard them screaming, and afterwards I always 

 knew a fine morning by the sound of their voices. Higher 

 up, when we leave the highest limits of region Eo, i, we shall 

 see neither Swifts Martin, nor Swallow, and nothing is more 

 striking on the 'Alps,' tha;n the sense that you have left these 

 birds of summer behind you. The highest point at which I 

 saw a swallow last summer was at the glacier of the Shone, 

 where Anderegg pointed me out a single straiggler as a 

 curiosity: but later iu ithe year they are probably bolder. 

 Their place is taken in regions Nos. 2 and 3 by two other 

 species, by no means common, and of great interest — the 

 Alpine Swift and the Crag-martin. I have not found the 

 latter in the district of which we are Speaking, but he is 

 always to be seen in a place well-known to most travellers 

 in Switzerland — the steep descent of the Gemmi, to Leukerbad. 

 As you wind down those tremendous precipices, you will 

 see a little ghostly bird flitting up and down them, something 

 after the manner of a bat, and reminding you of our Sand- 



