5220 Notes of a Tour in Switzerland. 



the shape of the wing and outline of the entire form, as well as in 

 their general manners and evolutions in the air, these birds so exactly 

 correspond with our native species, that but for their superior size — 

 they look almost as big as little hawks — the close view I had of them, 

 and, I may add, the broad hint received from my friend of the 

 tower, 1 should certainly have passed them by as no other than my 

 old familiar friends and favourites. I did not hear them scream or 

 utter any note, which would have given me much pleasure, if scream 

 they do, as is most probable. In answer to the inquiry, " How late 

 in the season do the swifts remain at Berne?" I was informed that 

 they stay till about the beginning of October, and that they arrive in 

 March or April. I looked out for them near the cathedral on the 16th 

 of September, but could see only two ; doubtless the pair which had 

 the brood of nestlings in the tower. 



Of the fishes worthy of remark to be met with in Switzerland, I re- 

 gret to say that I can speak but little, having had no opportunity of 

 seeing them except on table, when of course their interest to the 

 ichthyologist has in a great measure evaporated. On one occasion, 

 at Brienz, we had served up for dinner the celebrated " Lotte," a very 

 excellent fish when plainly dressed ; but in this instance it was so dis- 

 guised and enveloped in a profusion of thick sauce, (their cookery 

 here is oftentimes abominable), that it was not without difficulty I re- 

 cognised my old acquaintance the " Barbolt," as the fish is called in 

 Warwickshire {Lota vulgaris). At Geneva we several times met with 

 " Farra," a rather soft and delicate fish, which I take to be the 

 Gwiniad of Wales, and the "Skelly" of Ullswater and the Lakes 

 (Coregomis fera), or some nearly allied species : they were of a fair 

 size, weighing, 1 should guess, from a pound and a half to two pounds 

 each. Some of our party pronounced them to be by far the best fish 

 we met with during the tour: for myself I should give the preference 

 to the Lotte, always, however, barring the sauce. At the same table 

 d'hote one day appeared a large fresh-water trout, of perhaps twelve or 

 fifteen pounds' weight, the produce probably of the adjoining lake : 

 the meat was firm, of a yellowish pink colour, and well flavoured 

 enough, but by no means so good as that of an English trout of a 

 pound weight when in proper season. The pike of the Swiss lakes, 

 so far as I had an opportunity of judging, I did not think excellent of 

 their kind : as might be expected, they grow sometimes to a very 

 large size. At Thun 1 saw nailed up against the side of a net-maker's 

 house, in lerrorem, as it were, like vermine on a gamekeeper's wall, 

 the skulls of five or six large pike with their jaws expanded outwards, 



