SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 223: 
into Ray’s Itinerary is Strasburg, visited by the four friends 
on July 23rd, 1663, on which occasion our author mentions 
the Whimbrel, and the Black Stork again, adding : ‘‘ We suppose 
those we saw were young ones, for that their bills and legs 
were green.” * But what was much more to the purpose, 
Willughby was able to buy a volume at Strasburg contain- 
ing excellently coloured “Pictures of all the Water-foul 
frequenting the Rhine near that City, as also all the Fish and 
Water-Insects found there.’ This welcome prize was “ pur- 
chased of one Leonard Baltner, a Fisherman.’’} 
It was in Germany that Ray and Willughby first met 
with the Roller, and one can imagine their pleasure at such a 
beautiful bird, while in the market at Ratisbone, in Bavaria, 
they were fortunate in picking up a Great Black Woodpecker. 
This was in September, on the 15th of which month our 
travellers arrived at Vienna, where nothing is said about the 
market, but at the live-bird shops they came across a few 
novelties. 
The Nutcracker, illustrated in a plate in “The Orni- 
thology ’’§ from a dried skin, which they very likely had sent 
home or brought with them, was met with near this city. 
We can fancy Willughby’s excitement when its harsh call- 
note was encountered, apparently on September 26th, “in 
the mountainous part of Austria, near the way leading 
from Vienna to Venice, not far from a great village 
called Schadwyen, where there is a very steep, difficult and 
craggy ascent. .... ” This is precise enough, and it would 
be interesting to know if Nutcrackers are still there. In 
Switzerland, the travellers had leisure to search for many 
plants, and among birds they were successful, too—the Dipper, 
Ptarmigan, and Common Sandpiper being added to their 
growing list. The last-named was noticed in the month 
of April on the margin of the Lake of Geneva,|| where its 
piping note and flirting tail are still to be heard and seen. 
* “The Ornithology,” pp. 286, 295. 
+ Ray’s Preface to ‘‘ The Ornithology.” A description of it has been 
already given, p. 197. 
+ Such as the Citril, Serin and Crested Lark, see ‘‘ The Ornithology,” 
° 
: Sate Ornithology,” p. 133, pl. XX; and “ Travels,” p. 120. 
|| ‘The Ornithology,” pp. 149, 176, 302. 
