5272 Birds. 



tarns to be found in the higher ranges of mountains; and these moun- 

 tain torrents are the delight of the little dipper, which flits over the 

 water, and loves to perch on some vast fragment of stone, in and out 

 among the roaring, foaming water, gazing at its boiling, mad, riotous 

 career, entering into its gambols with all its heart, and rejoicing in the 

 hubbub. I can scarcely particularise localities, as I happen to have 

 fallen in with it very often, in the neighbourhood of Thun, and the 

 valleys running up thence towards the Oberland ; in the valley of the 

 Rhone, and the tributary streams descending thereto ; in the vale near 

 Chamouni ; on the Simplon Pass ; in the valley of the Reuss, in Canton 

 Glarus; and, above all, in Cantons Appenzell and S. Gall, and the 

 fine mountain streams abounding therein ; but I think it would be 

 found generally throughout the country, were the smaller quiet vales 

 explored as much as the greater and better known passes. How I 

 tmce met with a very remarkable breeding-place of the water ouzels, 

 behind a waterfall in one of the most retired valleys of the Canton 

 Appenzell, at the foot of the Eben-Alp, I have already detailed in the 

 'Zoologist,' in my ' Norwegian Notes' (Zool. 3027). 



The Ring Ouzel {Turdus torqualus). Once only was I so fortunate 

 as to see this bird in Switzerland, but 1 know from others that it is not 

 at all rare there : the place where I met with it was just of the same 

 nature as the spot where I found it so frequently in Norway, viz. the 

 lower part of a mountain, either dotted with bushes or barren and 

 rocky; and of such scenery — wild, desolate and rarely trodden by 

 man — there is a vast extent throughout the country, so that we are 

 not surprised to hear that the ring ouzel is a well known bird 

 there. 



The Black Redstart (Phoenicura tithys). I cannot say that I have 

 ever met with this bird alive, but I have the best evidence of its 

 frequent occurrence in the country from a knowing ornithologist, who 

 showed me several stuffed specimens and slyns which he had himself 

 procured, and from whom also I obtained an egg, laid in a chalet con- 

 tiguous to his home. 



The Mountain Linnet {Lino fa montium). High up in the moun- 

 tain, flitting to and fro among the rocks, always active, merry and 

 cheerful, have I several times met with this sharp little bird : he seems 

 to delight in the upper pastures, where the sheep and cows graze in 

 the summer, where the air is always keen, and even in the height of 

 summer the nights are cold. 



The Rose-coloured Pastor (Pastor roseus). The late much-lamented 

 Mr. Yarrell (whose recent loss the whole scientific world, in common 



