194

THE ALPINE REGIONS.

us, and ate gressini 1 from our hands. It greedily bolted bits ofthese two or three inches long, until its throat was full; then,when no more could be stowed away, it flew off to dispose of itsload, returning after a short interval for a fresh supply. At lastone of the Turinese presented his pocket-knife to the birdinstead of the expected morsel. Very much to the disgust ofthe owner it made a sudden snap at it, twitched it out of hishand, and flew away, disappearing over the brow of a cliff justbelow the terrace on which we were standing. We followed,hoping to mark the thief down, but were too late. Before longit came flying back, and perched between us with its usual airof demure self-complacency; whereupon the owner of the knife,perhaps wishing to be even with it, held out a box of matches.Another snap and this too was gone. This time I managed tokeep the rogue in view, but when I came up, the box wasalready torn open, the matches were scattered about, and masterraven was biting off the heads one by one, and to all appearanceswallowing the brimstone pills with an appetite. The cunningbird, however, had stowed the knife away in some hiding-place,which we failed to discover.

Two other members of the same family are not uncommonin the High Alps. These are the chough ( Pyii-hocorax gracu-lus), now becoming so rare in England, and the Alpine chough(P. alpinus). These birds may be seen flying about the higherpeaks; and are only distinguished by the former having a redbill, the latter (a slightly smaller bird) a yellow ; both have redlegs. They ascend to great heights; I have seen a pair,—ofwhich species I could not be sure, but I think the latter—atthe top of the Piz Languard (10,715), and another pair flyingabout the Hochste Spitze of Monte Rosa , the highest bare

1 A sort of bread or biscuit eaten commonly instead of bread in the Pied-montese valleys. It is made in long stems which look not unlike a bundle ofunbaked ‘ churchwarden ’ pipes without the bowls. I wonder it haB not beenintroduced into England, for it is far more wholesome than bread.