5218 Notes of a Tour in Switzerland. 



the Alpine passes (I speak only of what occurred in my own case) 

 is the extreme scarcity, I might almost say the absence, of wild quad- 

 rupeds and birds ; neither game nor vermin presented themselves to 

 view. In two instances, during the tour, a black squirrel was ob- 

 served in or near a pine forest ; and once while botanising I started a 

 large mouse from under a thick coating of moss. Such was the 

 scanty list of quadrupeds ! Our mountain rambles, it ought to be 

 stated, were principally confined, or nearly so, to what I may call the 

 common-place excursions of a Swiss tourist; such e.g. as the ascent 

 of the Rigi, the Brunig Pass, the Wengern Alp and Grindelwald 

 down to Meyringen, the pass of the Grimsel, the Simplon, the Tete 

 Noire, the Gemmi, &c, and several excursions around Chamouni, 

 and last, but not least in beauty and interest, those exquisite passes 

 on the Jura range on either side of Moutier : perhaps, therefore, we 

 had no right to calculate upon seeing the chamois, nor still less the 

 marmot, at large and in their native mountains. Accordingly we 

 rested satisfied with viewing these shy animals in a state of confine- 

 ment. We had, however, flattered ourselves that we were to have seen 

 eagles, kites, and the like, soaring over the mountains, and adding to 

 the savage grandeur of alpine scenery. One small hawk was the only 

 bird we saw of this family. No wild fowl appeared to frequent any 

 of the lakes, with the exception of a solitary wild duck seen on the 

 large dirty-coloured tarn (Dauben See) near the top of the Gemmi : a 

 single kingfisher was observed on the lake of Thun ; and now and 

 then, but very rarely, a wheatear, or a yellow wagtail, might be seen in 

 the mountain valleys. On one occasion I remarked a bird which was 

 unknown to me, scarcely so large as a thrush and not unlike in 

 colour;* and once I remember to have observed a chaffinch. But 

 birds of all kinds were so scarce, that whenever one did occur it was 

 remarked as something unusual, with the exclamation, " Why, there's 

 a bird 1" Towards the higher part of the Gemmi pass a number of 

 large black-coloured birds were observed in the air, which at first we 

 made no doubt were rooks and jackdaws, but on nearer approach 

 their note was found to be quite unlike that of those birds, and dif- 

 ferent indeed from any that 1 had ever heard before. Could the 

 species have been the redlegged crow or chough ? with whose note 

 1 am unacquainted. The water-ouzel, a lover of pure, limpid, rocky 

 rivulets, is a bird of far too refined a taste to frequent the dirty 

 torrents that are met with among the Oberland Alps : I remarked the 



* Tlie Alpine Accentor ? 



