THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 211 



even this number can only have constituted a fraction of the great 

 host of migrants moving from east to west at that particular period. 

 In fact, if we imagined the whole area between Memel and the Ural 

 to be covered by one dense continuous forest, in which each tree 

 bore a nest of these birds, all the broods of these would not have 

 sufficed to furnish the material observed in this place on one only 

 of the last of these October days. 



45. — Siberian Jay [Unglxjcks-Heher]. 

 CORVUS INFAUSTUS, Linn.i 



Corvns infaustus. Nauniann, xiii. 214. 



Siberian Jay. Dresser, iv. 471. 



Geai imitateur. Temminck, Mamtel, 1 1 5, iii. 66. 



There is not much to report from Hehgoland in regard to this 

 small peculiar bird. It is one of the few which I note here, not 

 from my o\s-n observations, or on the strength of those of Reymers 

 or Aeuckens. On the 14th of April 1849, a young gunner who 

 daily brought me birds — sometimes very rare ones — saw one entirely 

 unknown to him, but which he nevertheless described as a small 

 Jay, sitting at a distance of a fevv- paces on a throstle-bush. He 

 described the bird with gi-eat exactitude, and especially remarked 

 that it had no blue on its wings, but instead thereof rust-red mark- 

 ings. Unfortunately, he had not his gun at hand ; and after he had 

 fetched it, the interesting stranger could no longer be found. 



This man who had been occupied working in the fields had 

 had his attention aroused by the call-note of the bird, and told 

 me that it was the ' most remarkable bird-note ' he had ever heard, 

 for it was as much like the ' soft mewing of a cat' as the voice of a 

 bird. The most westei'n nesting-places of this species lie in 

 Scandinavia, between 60° and 70° N. latitude, and extend eastwards 

 within the same parallels of latitude as far as Kamtschatka. 



46. — Alpine Chough [Alpenkrahe]. 

 CORVUS PYRRHOCORAX, Linn.^ 



Corvus pyrrhocorax. Naumann, 107, xiii. 211 ; Blasius, Nachtrdge. 41. 



Alpine Chough. Dresser, iv. 445. 



Pyrrhocorax chocard. Temminck, Manuel, i. 124, iii. 68. 



During the earliest period of my collecting, I obtained here a very 

 badly stuffed example of this specimen which dated from the earhest 



' Perisortus infaustus (Linn.). - Pyrrhocorax alpinus, Koch. 



