6Z THE ALPS IN JUNE. 



expected to meet, the Blue-headed Wagtail {Motdcillaflava, Linn.), 

 did not once offer himself to my field-glass, nor did his near 

 relative, our common Yellow Wagtail of spring and summer. 



But it is time that we should leave the pastures and make an 

 expedition into the higher region of rock and snow. There is of 

 course but little bird-life there, but that little is interesting. The- 

 best way is to go straight up the steep grass-slopes to the north- 

 west of the inn, which are carpeted in June with millions of 

 fragrant pansies and gentians, until we arrive, after a chmb of 

 some I goo feet, at a little hollow filled with snow and limestone 

 boulders, and having on one side a precipitous wall of rock, and 

 on the other a series of upward-sloping stretches of snow, 

 interspersed with patches of rock and short grass. Early in the 

 season, when this desolate region is stUl quite undisturbed, you 

 may see a good deal here by lying in wait. In my first walk 

 here, no sooner did I reach this hollow, than a badger got up 

 about ten yards from me and shuffled away behind some 

 boulders ; and while following up his tracks over the snow, I 

 found them crossing and recrossing the 'spur' of chamois. A 

 little further on, I saw the Ptarmigan creeping about among 

 the rocks, and very soon I heard the call of the Snow-finches. 

 Tlvese birds, who thus live and breed almost within the limits 

 of perpetual snow, might be supposed, as Gould says of them, to 

 dwell in unmolested security.' I was soon able to judge of the 

 accuracy of his statement, for as soon as I had caught sight of 

 them with the field-glass, I saw that something was causing 

 anxiety to the little family. It was their alarm-call that I had 

 heard; and as I was cautiously watching them fluttering on or 



