COUESE OF MIGRATION IN HELIGOLAND 11 



June, as one might expect, is, so far as numbers are concerned, 

 not so productive a month as its predecessor ; nevertheless it may 

 add to the collection an equal, if not greater, number of the rarer 

 occurrences. Its first days, if fine, warm, and calm, convey to this 

 island the Melodious Warbler, the Barred Warbler, ilarsh Warbler, 

 and Reed Warbler ; isolated examples of the Lesser Grey Shrike 

 and Woodchat Shrike are seen ; now and again, too, the Short-toed 

 Lark, which is, however, also met with during the latter half of 

 Ma}' ; also Cretzschmar's Bunting (Emberiza ccesia), and the Black- 

 headed Bunting (Emheriza rnekmocephala), an example or two of 

 the Rose-coloured Starling:, and strangers of like sort from the far 

 south-east. 



Up to the middle of the month, besides the above named, the 

 Spotted Flycatcher — once, on the 3rd June 1860, I obtained a fine 

 old male of the White- collared Flycatcher (Muscicapa albicollis), — 

 Willow Warbler, Swallow, Martin, Sand Martin, Goatsucker, and 

 the Turtle Dove, still continue their migration, though in diminished 

 numbers. The migration then gradually dwindles, and shortly 

 after is completely arrested, for the old scattered examples of 

 Plovers, Godwits, and Sandpipers, and the like, which are met 

 with up to the end of this, and in the course of the next month, are 

 not regular migrants, but stragglers, who either singly or in flocks 

 rove about throughout the summer without going to their breeding- 

 places. Simultaneously Avith these may be seen now and agam 

 one or more old birds of other species, such as Starlings, Thrushes, 

 and the like ; these, however, consist of individuals who have either 

 lost their mates or whose nests or broods have been destroyed ; 

 as, however, it is too late to make another attempt at breeding, 

 and as the time of their migration has not yet arrived, they like- 

 wise are compelled to fly about idly and without purpose. 



The arrival of the young Starlings is the first indication of the 

 reflux of the migration wave. These appear in smaller or greater 

 companies as early as the last ten days of June, and increase in 

 numbers daily up to many thousands, into July. Thus in 1878, 

 during many days of June and July, hundreds of thousands of 

 young birds of this species travelled across and past Heligoland. 



July. — A considerable increase in the number of birds engaged 

 on their return passage is noticeable in the course of this month. 

 At its commencement, in addition to young Starlings, young 

 Lapwings may often be seen during the morning hours in gi-eat 

 numbers in potato-fields; they are followed by the first young 

 birds of the Ringed Plover, and somewhat later by the Golden 

 Plover, the Ruff, and the Dunlin, also the Whimbrel and the Red- 

 shank, to which the Greenshank is soon after added, all the birds 



