BIRDS AT KISSINGEN. 417 



of Kissengen, when the Austrians and Bavarians were defeated 

 by the Kussians on July 10th, 1866. 



July 11th. — Had a good view of the Garden Warbler singing; 

 this is, in my opinion, a most difficult bird to see, although one 

 hears it everywhere. Red-backed Shrikes were very plentiful ; 

 they sometimes uttered notes like two stones knocking together. 

 Many birds do this, such as the Robin, Wheatear, Stonechat, 

 Whinchat, Blackcap, Garden Warbler, Redstart, yet there are 

 certain modifications in each case, which a practised ear can 

 readily detect. 



July 12th. — " Mein Geburstag"; climbed a hill as I always 

 do on this day. My hill this year was the Finsternberg ; saw a 

 Hare, some Jays, and a Robin up there. 



July 13th. — Took a lovely walk up the Stubenberge road, and 

 heard both the Wood Pigeon and the Turtle Dove ; saw also a 

 Common Buzzard, and a hawk I took for a Goshawk mobbed by 

 a Swallow and other small birds. 



July 14th. — A splendid view from the Claushohe, 730 feet 

 above the Saale, a wooden tower 48 feet high, with an indicator 

 to show the different objects in the distance ; on the north the 

 great Thiiringen Wald — how I wished I could go there ! — and 

 the Kreuzberg, where I hoped to go next day. Saw in the woods 

 that most interesting bird, the Crested Tit ; its note, " splururra, 

 splururra" always enabled me to identify it. 



July 15th. — Feast of S. Swithin, and, alas! the weather fore- 

 cast fromMunich, posted in the Kur-Garten, announced "Gewitter 

 und strich Regen." Thunder-storms and rain on S. Swithin's day, 

 and the day of our long-looked for excursion to the Kreuzberg ! 

 No matter, if we have to brave it all : and so, at 10 a.m., we set 

 forth in a capacious landau belonging to the hotel, drawn by two 

 fine horses, and driven by a stout rubicund "Kutscher" in green 

 livery. After a pleasant drive of about three hours, through many 

 small villages, — and in Bavaria the villages are rarely two miles 

 apart, — we entered a valley with a stream running through it, and 

 somewhat precipitous hills on either side. Here an enormous bird 

 attracted our attention, as it flew slowly to a large rock, and, 

 turning round towards us, uttered a shrill scream ; at once it was 

 followed by another, evidently its mate, and a third, which we 

 took for a young bird. " Geier," cried our coachman, but 

 evidently the birds were "Adler" (eagles), the first I had ever 



ZOOLOGIST. NOV. 1891, % I, 



