The _Steinadler_, which, like the preceding, belongs to the inaccessible mountains of the cantons of Glaris, Schwyz, the Grisons, Appenzell, and Berne, would seem to be a variety or sub-species of the _Aquila imperialis_. The inhabitants of Eblingen, a village on the borders of the Lake of Brienz, hunt him vigorously. Finally, some eagles there are which only sojourn in the Alps temporarily; they appear to be astray; such are-- The _Circæetus leucopsis_, which has a particular affection for serpent-haunted districts; The _Haliætus leucocephala_, with head and tail of a milky white, belonging to the north of Europe and America; and The _Neophron percnopterus_, or Egyptian eagle, of carrion-like odour, which is sometimes met with in the neighbourhood of Geneva. The tawny-headed vulture (_Vultur fulvus_), and the ashy vulture (_Vultur cinereus_), with gray-brown mouth, and a brownish collar round his bare neck, are extremely rare in Switzerland. * * * * * But we now take leave of the eagle, and turn our attention to the lowly wren, whose charming but simple music has been described in charming but simple verse by Bishop Mant:-- "The quick note of the russet wren, Familiar to the haunts of men; He quits in hollowed wall his bower, And through the winter's gloomy hour Sings cheerily; nor yet hath lost His blitheness, chilled by pinching frost, Nor yet is forced for warmth to cleave To caverned nook or straw-built cave,-- Sing, gentle bird! sing on, designed A lesson for our anxious kind, That we, like thee, with hearts content"---- [Illustration: FIG. 13.--The Wren.] The wren here referred to is a British species, the common wren, or _Troglodytes vulgaris_, one of the smallest of our British songsters; a restless, lively bird, which twitters about the hedgerows in summer, and about the garden and shrubbery in winter, and chanting his mellow song even under the gloomy sky of December. Allied to this familiar bird is the Gold-crowned Knight,[22] or _Sylvia regulus_, which is found in the Alpine deserts at an elevation of 9000 to 10,000 feet. Like our own Jenny Wren, he has a very fine, slender bill, which denotes his insectivorous propensities. He is easily known by the little crest of silky feathers which he wears on his head, like a diadem, and also by his peculiar cry of _souci-î-î-î_.