MR. J. H. GURNEY ON THE ORNITHOLOGY OF SWITZERLAND. 259 
foreneck, while the body is still covered with thick sooty down ; 
the whole head is next protected, by which time the sprouting 
feathers of the tail are half-an-inch long. I had the pleasure of 
bringing some back for the Natural History Museum in this stage, 
with an old bird picked up in the Cathedral in May, 187G, at which 
time Mr. Grimm says a good many were destroyed by a sudden 
change of temperature, a circumstance which has happened on 
three or four occasions before to his knowledge in Berne. Insects 
soon disappear in cold weather, and the quantity they require for 
themselves and young is estimated at thousands by Zehntner 
(as quoted by M. Fatio), who often found 80 to 100 in their 
mouths, and once counted 220, of which 30 were Tabatius bavin us. 
No wonder, therefore, that they sometimes perish for lack of what 
is to them the staff of life, and for the samo reason our English 
Swifts are often made to suffer. Zehntner, whose account is 
admirable, on different occasions found seven Painted Lady Butter- 
flies in their mouths, and this he ascertained by catching the. old 
Swifts at their nests, and letting them go again ; but for many further 
details I must refer to his narrative as given in the “Catalogue des 
Oiseaux de la Suisse.” 
The only Birds of Prey which call for special mention,* for it 
is unnecessary to repeat what has been already better said by 
Saunders, are the Black Kites, Milvus mvjrans (Bodd). They 
were abundant on the Lake of Geneva by the 15th of April, but 
1 am very much surprised that Mr. Saunders never saw the Red 
Kite, M. ictinus. Both of these seem to breed in a small mountain 
behind the town of Vevey, at any rate, I feel sure the Black Kite 
does, although the locality is not among those indicated in Fatio 
and Studer’s ornithological maps. In civilised Switzerland, Kites 
are not the scavengers of towns that they still are in Cairo, and 
once were in London ; but they pick up what they can get, and 
that is miscellaneous enough. 
Perhaps the Red Kite never fishes, as does its congener the Black 
Kite, for the silvery “ L’Ablette,” a small fish about the size of a 
Sardine, abundant round the sides of the Lake of Geneva. On the 
* Dr. A. Girtanner, who has especially interested himself in those grand 
Vultures, the Lauimergeyer, does not believe that any still breed in Switzer- 
land, but a few migrants visit the more lofty mountains. It is, perhaps, still 
al>o found in the Maritime Alps, of. ‘ Ibis,’ 1SS)<3, p. 282. 
