112 THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 



Ibid. -p. 91.— 'The Shore Larks had ah-eady (12th May) been 

 some days in Ust-Zylma. and by this time were in large and small 

 flocks, in the fields, on both sides of the town. All those we shot 

 proved to he males.' 



Ibid. p. 102. — 'Flocks of Shore Larks had by this time (19th 

 May) become more numerous, and consisted of males and females 

 in nearly equal numbers.' 



Ibid. p. 132. — ' I shot (30th Jlay) the strange songster, and 

 brought down my first Little Bunting.' 



Und. p. 153. — 'I shot the little songster (7th June), and it 

 proved to be a male Scarlet Bullfinch {Carpodacus erythrmus).' 



Wheelwright (Ten Years in Sweden, pp. 331 and 332) says, in 

 regard to the Shore Lark, that, of fifty of the earliest spring arrivals 

 shot at Quiekjock, in Lapland, there was found 'strange to say'(!!) 

 only one female bird. 



Here in Heligoland the forerunners of the spring migration are 

 invariabl}' old males ; a week or two later, solitary old females 

 make their appearance ; and after several weeks, both sexes occur 

 mixed, i.e. females and younger males ; Avhile, finally, only young 

 birds of the previous year are met with. The males arriving 

 earliest during the commencement of the migration are invariably 

 the handsomest examples, in perfect plumage. For instance, in the 

 case of the Ring Ousel, the first examples have invariably pure white 

 breastbands ; while almost all the examples of the Northern Blue- 

 throat, obtained during the first week of their spring migration, are 

 old males in which, in addition to the other blue-coloured parts, 

 the lores also are suffused with blue. 



Similar features are brought to light in the case of the Pied 

 Wagtail. The vanguard of its migratory host in spring is always 

 composed of old males, in which not only the whole of the back 

 and throat are glossy black, but in which also, the sides of the 

 breast and the flanks are of a deep black colour. The same jjerfect 

 coloration is met with in the case of the first arrivals of the 

 Pied Flycatchers, the Common and Black Redstarts, the three 

 species of Yellow Wagtails, and, in fact, in the case of all other 

 migrants which pass the island — though naturally, in the case 

 of many species whose plumage is less conspicuous, differences 

 of age and sex can only be discerned if the birds are in closest 

 proximity to the observer. 



All these phenomena are displayed so clearly on this island, 

 that they are known to every gunner and fowler as well as, and 

 indeed sometimes better than, his alphabet. Nay, even the boy who 

 rejoices in the pos.session of his first blowpipe is so well versed in 

 these said phenomena as, for instance, to know perfectly well that as 



