THE BIRDS OF THE RIFFELALP, CANTON
VALAIS, SWITZERLAND.
By P. L. Sclater, M.A., 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 at its door. I cannot truly say that birdlife 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 European 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 companions. 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 characteristic 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 Görnergrat above the Riffelalp (alt. 10,200 ft.), where they inhabit the southern face of the jagged
