A NATURALISES JOURNAL IN HOLLAND AND BELGIUM. '331 



Redstarts, one a very fine adult male. They like to haunt the 

 houses and manure-heaps, of which there were many then in the 

 streets of La Roche. These heaps were a nuisance, because they 

 were placed in the gutters, and in an ordinary way the gutters 

 afford the smoothest and best walking to be found in these 

 cobbled streets. The people were apparently cleaning out their 

 cowhouses for the winter, and could be seen wheeling out the 

 contents through their own houses ! If, as I suspect, Ruticilla 

 titys winters here, the manure-heaps are an important factor in 

 making the place suitable for the purpose. I saw a White Wag- 

 tail, presumably a bird of the year, with the yellow tinge and a 

 grey crown and occiput (cf. Zool. 181)0, p. 375, and 'Naturalist,' 

 1891, p. 349). We noticed also a Stonechat and a Buzzard. A 

 man repairing the road had just turned out a large Salamander 

 (Salamandra maculosa) in moving some earth. He said they 

 were common, and he often unearthed five or six in a day. Other 

 reptiles seen were a dead Blindworm and the remains of a Colu- 

 brine Snake. Pearl-bordered Fritillaries (Argynnis eaphrosyne) 

 were common at the roadside. We saw more Black Redstarts 

 about the chateau. There were bunches of Song Thrushes in 

 the shops, and at the hotel they gave us Grives to eat daily ; they 

 were wonderfully fat, and had been feeding on rowan -berries. 

 This it was easy to ascertain, as the cook did not draw or clean 

 the Grives, and when we cut one open we always had a few 

 berries on our plates. 



Oct. 12th. Dull and a little rain. Black Redstarts in song 

 about the roofs, morning and afternoon. I noticed one par- 

 ticularly fine adult male. Watched a Dipper in the Ourthe with 

 a dusky head, which undoubtedly had sooty under parts, i. e. no 

 chestnut on the belly. In this respect it resembled Cinclus 

 aquaticus melanog aster, which is said to occur in North Germany. 

 La Roche is only a little north of lat. 50°, and only about 700 ft. 

 above sea-level. But the country is drained by the Northern 

 Meuse or Maas, of which the Ourthe is a tributary ; unlike part 

 of the Vosges (where C. aquaticus albicollis is said to occur), 

 which are drained by the Southern Saone and Rhone. This in- 

 dividual was sitting on a bit of drift at the edge of the river, and 

 was singing. The song was a sweet bright warbling, rather 

 rapid, with some shrill squeaking notes and some very Skylark- 

 like ; my wife noticed this independently. After singing for a 



