5276 Birds. 



a close resemblance to the large grasshoppers with their bright red 

 wings, so accurately described by Mr. Bree. I again had a distinct 

 and close view of it near Weissbad in the Canton Appenzell in 1844, 

 when ascending the Eben-alp, on an excursion to Wildkirchlein : it 

 was close to the solitary hermitage of a Capuchin friar, far up the 

 mountain, in a most wild and romantic spot 3 while our companions, 

 some Swiss, were making the rocks re-echo with their Alp-lieds and 

 rang-de-vaches, or Jodel (of which the Canton Appenzell is the true 

 parent), that I spied another of the brilliant birds which I had admired 

 years before on the Simplon : it was literally dancing against the face 

 of a perpendicular rock, its bright red wings quite glowing in the sun- 

 shine, and suffered me to approach within a dozen yards and watch 

 its movements, without taking the smallest notice of my presence. 

 The mditre dliotel at Wiessbad called it the Berg-vogel (mountain 

 bird), and assured me he had shot hundreds of them : it is the " Certhia 

 muraria" and "wall-creeper" of Latham, Gmelin, &c. For the fol- 

 lowing extract from Temminck (which may be interesting to some who 

 have, like myself, seen it in its native haunts), as well as for the 

 remaining particulars of it, I am still further indebted to Mr. Newton, 

 who sent me what I subjoin : — " Temminck places it in a genus by 

 itself, and says ' Ce que le Grimpereau fait sur les arbres, le Ticho- 

 drome le fait contre les pans verticaux des rochers, sur lesquels il se 

 cramponne fortement, sans cependant monter et descendre en grim- 

 pant: il s'assugettit seulement de long des fentes et les crevasses des 

 rochers et des murailles de vieux edifices isoles, quelquefois, mais 

 plus rarement de long du tronc des arbres;' and his description of it 

 is as follows : — * Sommet de la tete d'un cendre fonce ; nuque, dos, 

 et scapulaires d'un cendre clair ; gorge et devant du cou d'un 

 noir profond; parties inferieures d'un cendre noiratre ; couvertures 

 des ailes et partie superieure des barbes exterieures des pennes 

 d'un rouge vif; extremite des pennes alaires noire; ces pennes 

 ont deux grandes taches blanches, disposees sur la barbe interieure; 

 queue noire, terminee de blanc et de cendre ; bee, iris et pieds noirs; 

 longueur 6 pouces 6 lignes.' The male and female are much alike: 

 it appears only to inhabit the higher ranges of Southern Europe, the 

 Swiss Alps, Spain, Italy and Dalmatia, rare in Bavaria; it nestles in 

 chinks of rocks, and lays five or six roundish eggs, of a pure white : 

 the Germans call it ' Manerklette' and ' Manerlaufer,' and the Italians 

 * Picchio murajolo.'" 



The Kingfisher (Alcedo ispida). I will not say that I have seen 

 this bright and brilliant bird many times, but certainly it was no very 



