474 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
THE BIRDS OF THE RIFFELALP, CANTON 
VALAIS, SWITZERLAND. 
By *P. LL. Souater, MA., Ph.D:., F-R.S: 
Last September I passed eight very pleasant days, in splendid 
weather, at the excellent hotel on the Riffelalp, Zermatt, at a 
height of 7300 ft. above the sea-level. The hotel is situated 
close to a large grove of mixed larches and arolla pines (Pinus 
cembra), and just opposite the Matterhorn. It is well known as 
one of the most popular mountain resorts in Switzerland, and 
has been now rendered very accessible by the new electric railway, 
which puts you-down atits door. I cannot truly say that bird- 
life is abundant on the Riffelalp, or, in fact, in any other part of 
the Swiss Alps that I know of. But there are several birds there 
not to be seen in life in the British Islands, and of special interest 
to the student of Kuropean ornithology. 
You cannot go very far into the pine forest adjoining the hotel 
without meeting with the Nutcracker (Nucifraga caryocatactes). 
A harsh croak is heard, and a blackish brown Jay-like bird with 
a conspicuous white tail-end tumbles out of a tree and flies 
hurriedly into another, often followed by one or more com- 
panions. They seem specially fond of the arollas or arvens 
(Pinus cembra), upon the seeds of which they habitually feed, 
picking the cones into fragments in search of them. I have also 
seen them on the larch and on the spruce, and occasionally on 
the open moor. The Nutcracker is certainly the most charac- 
teristic bird of the higher forests in Switzerland—that is, from 
8000 to 10,000 ft.—and seems to be met with in nearly all the 
pine forests of that elevation. 
Another attractive bird of the Alps is the Alpine Chough 
(Pyrrhocorax alpinus), which may be seen in flocks in many of 
the precipitous cliffs of the higher mountains. ‘There is a large 
company of them on the Gornergrat above the Riffelalp (alt. 
10,200 ft.), where they inhabit the southern face of the jagged 
