G THE ZOOLOGIST. 



about 7500 ft. on the rocky slopes, and it seems to breed in rocky 

 places at lower elevations also. As I saw it at Suberg, near 

 Bienne (about 1450 ft.), this gives it a range of 6000 feet-. I saw 

 youug out of the nest being fed in the wych-elms below the 

 Bathhaus in Bern on the 17th June, and another full-grown one 

 foraging for itself in a kitchen-garden ; these were dark grey birds, 

 and were hardly spotted at all, as the young of our bird are. But 

 there they would certainly breed again, as the males were in full 

 song; so, too, at Meiringen, where young had flown by the 19th, 

 and the males were singing ; higher up nesting was in full swing, 

 and we watched a pair going in and out of the eaves of a chalet 

 at Golderen on the 22nd. On the Engstlen, the females seemed 

 to be sitting on first nests, as we saw only males and no young 

 birds. So, although the Black Redstart is said to rear two — and 

 sometimes three — broods in the season, this must apply to the 

 valleys only. On the high grounds they probably rear only one, 

 as, I believe, does our bird in England. They certainly sing, and 

 apparently breed, in a plain grey dress, without any white on the 

 wing, both at Meiringen and in the chalets in high pastures. 

 But I saw old males on the Engstlen Alp and on the Tannen- 

 band up to about 7500 ft. The song I usually heard was short, 

 more rapid than that of our bird, and seldom included what, as 

 far as I could make out, were the whole of the notes, viz. '* chichi 

 weo weo cheo che-dedede." A bird on the Engstlen sang inces- 

 santly a curious song. To his ordinary notes he added, after a 

 slight interval, " tiree-wee," and sometimes prefixed a grating 

 sound like a grasshopper's song. This strange sound, which some- 

 times preceded the song, may perhaps be expressed as "ki-wi-wig," 

 low and grating, the sound being produced from the back of one's 

 throat. The bird was rather peculiar, very light (F., who paid 

 great attention to it, said extremely so) on the head and back. 



Cyanecula lencocyana, Bluethroat. — A fine male, with con- 

 spicuous white spot on the breast, was perched on a pear tree 

 near the water-mill in Golderen (about 3500 ft.), where it was 

 still spring on June 21st, the pear-blossom being not yet over and 

 the hay-grass dotted with early purple orchids. In the Bern 

 Museum there is a specimen of C. wolfi, labelled " Bern," and 

 one of the present form merely marked " Sweitz " ; it is possible 

 that the latter is more of a mountain bird than the former ; I have 

 a specimen of it labelled as from the Vosges. 



