vi THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 



of" Obsei'vatiou.' Let us follow the surei' method, and, in 

 the words of Lord Salisbury in his address to the British 

 Association at Oxford, rather ' make a sm'vej, not of our 

 science, but of our ignorance.' 



It is not my business to criticise — in this place — the 

 deductions or arguments of our author, but only to point 

 out very decidedly the important nature of a great and 

 good piece of work, which cannot fail to take its stand as 

 an invaluable guide-post to the better understanding, in 

 many directions, of the great problems yet unsolved, con- 

 nected with the Life-history of Birds ; while amongst our 

 wiser naturalists it is hoped it may also prove a warning 

 Pharos asrainst the sunken rocks and shoals of undigested 

 theory and speculation. 



It is with all the greater pleasure that I introduce this 

 Euo-lish translation to such of our British ornitholocfists as 

 have been unable to master the German text, because, owing 

 to a somewhat misleading article which appeared in the Ibis ^ 

 after the publication of the original edition, I fear that the 

 importance of Mr. Giitke's work has not been fully realised. 

 The original list from which the said abstract was com- 

 piled is merely the sum of the materials upon which Mr. 

 Giitke's facts were based ; and the important earlier 

 chapters of the book were ignored entkely by the com- 

 piler. These however possess far higher interest, and 

 commend themselves to the appreciative study of ornitho- 

 logists of every country to a much further extent than 

 either the original Hst or its inefficient abstract. 



Thus it has been that the subject, so ably illus- 

 trated by our author, has been practically a closed book to 



' List of the Birds of Heligoland, as lecorded by Herr Giitke {Ibis, 189'2), p. 1. 



