BIRDS SEEN IN SWITZERLAND. 11 



projecting fang-like rock, between the Engstlen and Joch Pass. 

 Another there, two days afterwards, and the same morning, when 

 coming down the N.E. side of the pass, we fell in with two pairs. 

 It has been well called the " Alpenlerch," having a habit of soaring 

 up a little way like a true Lark and singing on the wing. It has 

 a curious flickering, dancing, wavering flight. A short, heavy- 

 looking bird, it seems to squat quite down when sitting on a 

 stone. The song, which is deiivered by the bird when perched on 

 a rock, as well as when in the air, has sometimes a resemblance 

 to that of the Hedgesparrow ; again one hears notes reminding 

 one of a Whitethroat's song when it sings on the wing. There 

 are also notes like "wich che che-ow che-ow," and some which 

 may be syllabled " tay tay tay." 



Cinclus aquaticus, Dipper. — A pair were feeding young which 

 could fly, on the banks of the Aare at Meiringen, on the 19th 

 June. I heard one in song there on the 22nd. On both the 

 occasions that I walked through the Aaresbucht I observed 

 Dippers there, even quite in the middle, and I marked one to its 

 nest in a hole in the rock, some five feet above the surface of the 

 roaring torrent. It was pretty to see the old Dippers on the 

 banks of the Aare hawking flies in the air ; also quite marvellous 

 to see how they dashed into the river (here flowing with the 

 greatest rapidity and raising white-crested wavelets on its cobalt 

 surface as it rushed along), and allowed themselves to be carried 

 down some yards before rising again. It seemed almost inevi- 

 table that they must be swamped. All the adult Dippers I saw 

 at Meiringen, so far as I could see (and I had excellent oppor- 

 tunities of seeing as the birds flew towards me, mounted into the 

 air after a fly, or perched on a stone), entirely wanted the chestnut 

 band on the breast — a fact I was not prepared for; head and 

 neck conspicuously pale, but they looked very dark underneath. 

 Two specimens in a shop-window at Interlaken had the usual 

 chestnut band, and so also had three in the Bern Museum, but 

 in two of the latter it was not at all bright. I saw one in the 

 Engstlen just below the lake where the little river flows rapidly 

 down a pine-clad rocky ravine ; this bird was rather pale-coloured, 

 with pale head and neck, and had chestnut on the breast, which 

 convinced me that those at Meiringen had not. I noticed a 

 young bird of the year as we walked up the Genthal. 



Parus major, Great Titmouse. — Observed at Bern ; at Thun, 



