152 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



the upper part of the Forest of Ardenne ; and another on the 

 wooded slope of the valley of the Molignee about Montaigle. 



T. merula. — Its haunts are similar to those in this country ; 

 common. 



Saxicola oenanthe. — A pair on high, open ground, near 

 Sanzinne (about 800 feet), perched several times in young 

 walnut trees and an apple tree in an orchard. I saw a female 

 about a marble quarry close to the Meuse below Dinant. 



Pratincola rubetra. — Numerous in the meadows along the 

 Meuse, some way above Dinant. 



P. rubicola. — Quite common along the Meuse above Dinant ; 

 perhaps drawn away from the bushy hillsides and cliffs by the 

 railway and telegraph wires. Also seen in a bushed gorge lead- 

 ing up from Bouvigne. 



Ruticilla titys. — Common, and generally distributed in suit- 

 able localities. It is quite a house-bird, frequenting even con- 

 siderable towns ; and during this visit to Belgium I only twice 

 saw it away from buildings. In one case an old male sat on a 

 projecting rock on the cliff face a long way from any houses ; in 

 the other, a male was perched on a dead branch of a low bush in 

 the middle of the refuse bank at a marble quarry. In Givet three 

 were singing; one of them from the steeply-pitched roof of the 

 church in the middle of the town. At Hastiere one sang from 

 the roof of the old inn; and another from the new brewery 

 chimney. At Hermeton-sur-Meuse, a farm — with its odoriferous 

 cowhouses and yard deep in manure, which it loves so well — had 

 its pair, for each pair seems to have its allotted location, and does 

 not, in the country at least, often admit of very near neighbours. 

 When dwelling in a town amid a waste of steep roofs of all sizes 

 and pitched at all angles, they are rather less exclusive. Stately 

 chateau, vile modern villa, and humble white-walled cottage are 

 alike favoured by this most domestic bird. It dearly loves one 

 of those typical Ardenne villages like Houyet ; or long, straight, 

 one-streeted Sommiere, where the cowhouse can hardly be dis- 

 tinguished from the owner's green-shuttered dwelling, and the 

 doors of each are alike and side by side, while a rude ladder con- 

 ducts the hens to a hole in the wall ; almost every house is pro- 

 vided with a midden-place in lieu of a front garden, the manure 

 neatly supported by a low wall or a wattle fence. All this results 



