66 THE ZOOLOGIST. * 



every day, and almost everywhere the " wheet le veo " of the 

 Pirol or Gold Amsel revealed the presence of this beautiful bird. 

 The clear whistle can be readily imitated. 



A Grey Woodpecker (Picus canus) (Grauspecht) nested quite 

 close to the hotel. At first I took it for a Green Woodpecker, 

 but the note seemed so much softer that I observed it more 

 closely, and finally identified it as Picus canus. I also saw one 

 in Strassburg. He sometimes appeared on the top of a tree near 

 the hotel courtyard, and thus verified Naumann's description : 

 " Der Specht sitzt dazu allemal auf der Spitze eines hohen 

 Baumes, und so schallen diese herrlichen Tone weit in den Wald 

 hinein." 



It was very remarkable to see the Terns fishing on the Aare ; 

 it seemed almost impossible for birds to pluck fish from a stream 

 running at the rate of nearly ten miles an hour, yet they seemed 

 to live and thrive. They often hovered, like Kestrels, over the 

 river, and the alders near it, in a captivating manner. 



There were not many Storks in our neighbourhood at Schinz- 

 nach ; Lensburg and Umiken had them, but Brugg had not, nor 

 did we see any at Baden or in the Black Forest, which we after- 

 wards visited. The Lesser Spotted Woodpecker was called in our 

 neighbourhood "der kleineZimmermann" (the little carpenter)— 

 a pleasant name. 



On June 13th I walked with my wife to Brugg, about three 

 miles distant, on a very pretty road, with woods on our right 

 hand and the valley of the Aare on the left. As we approached 

 the town I heard the cry of a bird quite unknown to me proceed- 

 ing from a potato-field which lay below the road towards the river. 

 I got down at once into the field, and there I saw a brownish bird 

 running about among the furrows and crying " pip, pip, pip " in a 

 loud tone, somewhat resembling that of a chicken. I drew near 

 cautiously, and had an excellent view of it as it ran before me, 

 looking back at me with its head turned round slightly to see 

 whether I was following ; it made no attempt to fly. The general 

 tone of the plumage was brown, and the bird seemed to be some- 

 what the size of a Lapwing. It had black bands, and a very 

 conspicuous white one lower down on the breast. I took it for 

 some species of Plover, but was obliged to defer identification till 

 I visited the museum at Basle on June 29th, where I saw at 



