29 
Birds of the Upper Engadine. 
a nest in a cleft of the rocks not more than a hundred yards 
from the hotel, and was sitting on two pure-white eggs as late 
as the 10th of August: no doubt a second brood. The 
Black Redstarts were very expert at catching flies in the 
air. 
On the way home we stopped a few days at Constance. 
Close to the Insel Hotel is a most interesting aviary, full of 
Ducks, Geese, and Swans. Among the former were a pair 
of Pochards and a pair of Tufted Ducks, perfectly tame, 
though able to fly. A branch of the Rhine runs through 
this aviary, and the observer can lean over the iron railings 
and look down into the blue-green water and see the weeds 
at the bottom. It was very curious to watch the Ducks 
dive ; their wings were never used; everything was done by 
their feet, and hard enough they worked. With their out¬ 
spread toes as a fulcrum, they made a headlong dive into the 
water, and as they somewhat slowly but steadily descended to 
the bottom, their feet were working as hard as they could 
go against the natural buoyancy of their bodies. As soon as 
they had gathered as much weed as they wanted, they raised 
their heads, stopped the rapid motions of their feet, and soon 
rose like corks to the surface. At other times they seemed 
to be fast asleep on the surface of the water, the head snugly 
tucked under the wing, and one foot apparently moving mecha¬ 
nically to prevent them from drifting down with the current. 
Sometimes they spent hours preening their feathers whilst 
swimming, occasionally almost lying on their backs in the 
water to smooth out the feathers of the underparts. I have 
never seen any place where the habits of these birds could be 
so easily observed. 
At St. Gall I paid a visit to Dr. Girtanner, and was much 
interested in three or four Wall-creepers which he had in 
a cage. He told me that they moulted out of their first 
plumage in their first autumn, and acquired the black on the 
underparts early in spring. 
