350 THE BIKDS OF HELIGOLAND 



though to make sure that no danger is kirking for it there. In the 

 course of its elevated flight it frequently halts for a moment 

 in a similar manner. As has been already stated, the bird moves 

 along the ground step by step, very nimbly and rapidly, like the 

 Tawny Pipit, — frequently raising its body erect, and taking a look 

 round, then again running along for a distance, and often in the 

 course of its run leaping upward after insects flying across its 

 path ; after which it will rest for a short interval, moving its long 

 tail slowly up and down the while : these observations can however 

 only be made if one lies on the ground and inspects the bird from 

 a considerable distance through a telescope. 



I kept a young autumn bird of this species, shghtly grazed on 

 on the wing by a shot, for several days alive in a large cage in 

 company with several Buntings and Finches, with which it agreed 

 very well. The bird was not at all shy or wild, but ran about 

 nimbly and cheerfully, and also accepted readily, and within my 

 immediate neiffhboin-hood, some maimed flies which were offered 

 it. Unfortunately, I was not prepared for maintaining an insect- 

 feeder ; and, much to my chagrin, was obliged to kill it, so as to 

 avoid torturing it uselessly. I was the more sorry for this, as I 

 felt convinced that I could quite easily have kept it alive with 

 ants' eggs, for it is a hardy and by no means a delicate bird. 



During the autumn migration, the young birds of the year, 

 which are still almost completely in their first plumage, arrive as 

 early as the end of August, their migration lasting until the end of 

 October, at which time, also, old birds already make their appear- 

 ance. Solitary mdividuals of these latter are met with throughout 

 November, and have been repeatedly shot even up to the middle of 

 December. 



The spring migration takes place in May — the birds arriving at 

 this season being almost invariably solitary old examples in 

 beautiful rust-coloured plumage, though also occasionally an 

 autumn bird of the preceding year in nearly white faded 

 plumage ; in some of these latter the light borders of the greater 

 and lesser wing-coverts have literally faded to a pure white. 



In the above-named young summer bird.s — the first arrivals of 

 the autumn migration — the upper parts are dull blackish brown, 

 the lower whitish, very faintly shot with rust yellow. The feathers 

 of all the upper parts, as well as those of the greater and lesser 

 outer wing-coverts, have narrow, sharply-defined dull bufly white 

 (rostgelblicliweiss) edges, and a stripe of similar colour passes over 

 each eye. From the bill downwards, along the sides of the neck, there 

 runs on each side a broad line of closely apposed, nearly black spots, 

 which on the upper breast and the sides of the breast pass into 



