A EAEE VISITOK. 79 



there, and it is seldom that a straggler finds Ms way further 

 north. On the 6th of November, 1884, I was returning from a 

 morning walk, and about a mile from the village came to a spot 

 which a few years ago was one of the prettiest in the country- 

 side. Here one road crosses another, and formerly the crossing 

 was enclosed by high hedges and banks, forming a comfortable 

 nook where the hounds used to meet, and where the Sand- 

 martins bored their way into the light and sandy soil. A land- 

 agent descended here one day, like a bird of ill omen, and swept 

 the hedges away, filling their place with long lines of bare and 

 ugly wall j the martins sought a lodging elsewhere, for they 

 could no longer feed their young with the insect-life of the hedge- 

 rows ; the hounds followed their example, and all my associations 

 with the spot were broken. But it was upon this very wall, 

 new, useful, straight, and intensely human, that this rare little 

 bird chose to sun himself that bright November morning. A 

 thousand times have I seen him on the old grey fern-covered 

 walls of the Alpine passes, but never did I expect to see him 

 on this hideous ' improvement ' of civilisation. Except that 

 he was silent and alone, he seemed as much at home here as 

 on the flowery slopes of the Engstlen-alp. There is nothing 

 that man can erect that is too uncomely for the birds. 



I have digressed for a moment to tell this tale of the Black 

 Kedstart, but I have hardly yet done with the village itself. 

 We have of course plenty of Eobins and Hedge-sparrows 

 breeding in our gardens, and in the nests of these the Cuckoo is 

 fond of depositing its egg. It would not be always true to say 

 that the Cuckoo lays its egg in its victim's nest, for in some 



