294 THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 



six of them without once missinff. He even went so far as 

 to pick out particular birds for his aim ; such individuals, for 

 example, as liad the white eye-streak, and I have known him to 

 bring down in this manner as many as ten examples in the course 

 of a few hours. At ebb-tide he used to be much about at the 

 base of the cliff, where, in the course of a walk, he would hit some 

 twenty or thirty smaller birds, such as Stonechats, Pipits, Sand- 

 pipers, and others. 



Among a mixed bag of this kind there was found one day — 

 6th October 1845 — a small Warbler which had been hit by the 

 stone as it was flying along the face of the cliff, and completely 

 crushed against the rock. Nevertheless, Aeuckens, who noticed 

 that the bird was an unusual one, brought me one of its wings, which 

 had remained undamaged, with a portion of the lower part of the 

 back with part of the lemon yellow plumage still adhering to it. I 

 had at that time no idea to what species this wing might belong, 

 though I suspected it was one of the Reguli. Aeuckens, however, 

 emphatically insisted that the bird was a Warbler. Accordingly I 

 not only preserved the wing, but, as I am accustomed to do in 

 doubtful cases, made an accurate drawing of it. On obtaining, a 

 year afterwards, the first example of Sylvia superciliosa, I believed 

 at first that I had solved the riddle ; but, on a closer examination, I 

 found that, although the markings of the two were similar, their 

 measurements did not agree. Several years later I read a short 

 description of Regulus modestus (Sylvia proregulus), and also pro- 

 cured a skin of this .species, but this also did not agree with my 

 wing, as it happened to be an Indian specimen. It was not, 

 however, until the summer of 1879, when Eugen von Homeyer, 

 on his visit to me, brought me, among other interesting objects, a 

 Siberian .skin collected by Dybowsky, and labelled Reguloides 

 jororeg^dus, that I was enabled to settle definitely that my wing 

 belonged to the latter species. Aeuckens, too, at once asserted, in 

 the most decided manner, that this was the species of which he 

 had hit one on the occasion above referred to. 



On the 29th of October 1875, Aeuckens, accompanied by his 

 nephew, Lorenz Dahn, again saw a bird of this species a few steps 

 in front of him under the edge of the cliff. The bird was seeking 

 shelter there against a violent east wind, and could not be induced 

 to come to the Upper Plateau. Had it been shot at in the position 

 in which it was found it would have fallen into the surf below 

 and been lost. Thus our two shooters had the leisure, enforced 

 in this instance, to contemplate the bright lemon yellow plumage 

 of the lower part of its back. 



Sylvia jyroregulus is scarcely any smaller than Sylvia super- 



