26 THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 



that time until about two in the afternoon, hosts consisting of 

 hundreds and thousands follow each other in uninterrupted suc- 

 cession. All of them first become visible on the eastern horizon. 

 Such members of the broad migrant column as come into view 

 behind the northern point of the sandhills travel in a straight line 

 across Heligoland, thus following a line of flight exactly east to 

 west, and they disappear over the sea towards the west, shaping 

 their course for the east coast of England. In the latter countrj', 

 too, the direction from which they are seen to arrive is so exactly 

 east that they are popularly known as Danish Crows. Even here, 

 however, the western extension of their flight is not yet at an end. 

 Mr. John Cordeaux — a most zealous observer — whose sphere of 

 observation is situated on the east coast of England, in the same 

 latitude as Heligoland, informs me that the bands of migrating 

 Hooded Crows do not alight immediately upon reaching the coast, 

 but continue their journey inland in a westerly direction; and 

 Stevenson {Birds of Norfolk, i. p. 261) states that, even after 

 reaching the more inland parts of the country, hundreds of these 

 birds, during the autumn migration, continue their flight in a 

 westerly direction. A portion of these arrivals pass the winter in 

 the eastern jiarts of England, only a few aj^pear to reach its western 

 portions, for Rodd {Birds of Cornwall and Scilly Islands, p. 64) says 

 that he can only record the Hooded Crow as an accidental visitant. 

 Nor does the migration extend to Ireland. Hooded Crows, indeed, 

 are found in the latter country, but these are regular residents, 

 neither leaving the country nor receiving additions from without, 

 since — according to Thompson's careful observations and reports 

 {Natural History of Ireland, vol. i.. Birds, jx 310) — their number 

 neither increases nor diminishes at any portion of the year. 



Now, the eastern and midland counties of England cannot by 

 any possible means aflbrd sufficient room for furnishing winter 

 quarters to the millions of Hooded Crows which every autumn 

 pass from this island across the North Sea ; and since, according to 

 Rodd and Thompson, they do not reach either the west of England 

 or Ireland, while, according to Stevenson, their numbers in Norfolk 

 are already reduced to hundreds, it follows that they must very 

 soon after reaching England pass across the Channel to France, 

 and accordingly terminate their long western flight by a final 

 deviation in a southerly direction. 



The foregoing considerations have, of course, gone no further 

 than to prove that these Hooded Crow migrants have maintained a 

 westerly line of flight over a stretch of some two hundred miles ; this, 

 however, ought to be sufticient to justify us in assuming that all the 

 countless hosts of wanderers, whose numbers are beyond even any 



