432 THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 



edge of the cliff, which terminated below in a dark ravine filled 

 with rubble. How was one to obtain it ? If I shot it where it was, 

 it would fall into the depth below and be lost. It was sitting at an 

 arm's length below the edge of the cliff'; I lay do^vn at right angles 

 to the edge, and looked down on the bird ; every feather, the small 

 nostrils, were as distinct before my eyes as if I had the bird in my 

 hand. I carefully passed my hand down over the edge ; but, on 

 approaching it, the small company became somewhat restless, the 

 birds raising their heads, and at the same time I found that they 

 were a few inches too far do^vn for me to reach them. I therefore 

 lay down along the edge of the cliff' so as to gain in length of grasp, 

 and with my left hand felt about for some strong tuft of grass, in 

 order to obtain a hold arainst falling over the cliff'; but all the 

 grass had been eaten off' quite short by the sheep : without hold of 

 some kind or other, with an abyss of some two hundred feet deep in 

 front of me, I thought the matter somewhat hazardous. It was a 

 desperate situation for an eager collector. As a last resource, 1 

 roused the bird repeatedly, hojiing that while on the wing it would 

 make such a turn that if shot it would fall on the upper surface of 

 the cliff, but all to no pui'pose. It soared about for a time back- 

 wards and forwards below the edge of the cliffs, under shelter from 

 the wind, then sank and disappeared, making a turn round the 

 north point of the island. I natiu'ally believed I should never set 

 eyes on it again ; went home, and made a sketch of it in colours — 

 having, however, previously described it to the brothers Aeuckens, 

 and offered a good price for its cajjture and production. 



In the coui'se of the night the wind developed into an ice-cold 

 storm from the north-east : and the Swallows, exhausted by want of 

 food, crowded in hundreds of thousands into all the crevices and 

 cavities of the lee-side of the cliff', where they were frozen in such 

 quantities that one might have gathered sacks-full of them. 



And then happened what will hardly seem credible: among 

 the enormous quantities of dead Swallows, Oelk — the eldest of the 

 Aeuckens brothers — who had walked round the island during the 

 ebb-tide, had picked up the eagerly-coveted rarity, which he 

 brought me with the question : ' Is this it ? ' 



This example is in my collection, and is up to the present the 

 only one of this species ever observed on the island. 



