68 THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 



and cannot any longer be subject to the least doubt, that the flights 

 of these birds idiich, on this island, appear far off on the eastern, 

 and disappear on the western horizon, are the same as those which 

 arrive on the English coast from an eastern direction. Accordingly 

 these sluggish flyers pass over the three hundred and twenty miles 

 of German Ocean in three hours, which gives a velocity of nearly 

 one hundred and eight geographical miles per hour. This instance 

 of migration speed is the more surprising inasmuch as it is dis- 

 played in the case of a bird which one might almost call clumsy, 

 and which certainly gives no evidence of corporeal dexterity. 



A few other instances of migration velocity, considerably above 

 the average rate of thirty-two geographical miles per day, may here 

 be cited. The young autunm birds of the Richard's Pipit, in 

 favourable weather, arrive in Heligoland as early as the beginning 

 of September — that is, about two months after they have left the 

 shell — half of which time at least thej' must have used in acquiring 

 the powers of flight. The distance from Dauria to Heligoland 

 amounts to about four thousand geographical miles; therefore, if this 

 Pipit did not accomplish more than thirty-two miles a day, mstead 

 of arriving here during the first days of September, it would not 

 make its appearance until about the end of December — that is, 

 provided that during the whole journey the bird has encountered 

 favourable weather, a contingency which, at that time of the year, 

 may be regarded as virtually im]:)ossible. If, on the other hand, 

 the migrants, through stress of weather, lost only a third portion of 

 the days, or, rather, nights — a by no means excessive estimate — the 

 time necessary for their journey, according to the above scale, 

 would be so much j^rotracted that all the birds would inevitably 

 succumb to the inclemency of the weather. Supposing, however, 

 they managed to survive this, and that they proceeded at the same 

 rate to winter quarters in, say, the south of France or Spain, they 

 would in this case, on their arrival there, have at once to start again 

 for their breeding homes if they wished to reach their nesting 

 stations at the requisite time. All this has refei'enco only to the 

 young birds of the year ; old breeding birds do not arrive here 

 until the middle of October and up to the middle of November. 



The most striking and incontestable pi'oof, however, of a migra- 

 tion carried out to its end at an extremely rapid rate of flight is 

 furnished by an American bird, the Virginian Plover (C/iiiradrius 

 virginicuys). The speed at which this bird travels during its 

 autumn migration probably even exceeds that of the Bluethroat on 

 its spring migration. Flocks consisting of thousands of these birds 

 have been met with at a distance of four hundred geographical 

 miles and more east of Bermuda, flying in a southerly direction on 



