486 THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 



tion that one might almost beat them to death with sticks ; neither 

 Woodcocks, nor any other species of birds, display the least sign 

 of fatigue on their arrival here, and, as I have already explained in 

 detail in the first part of this book, during nearly fifty years I have 

 only met with three instances — viz. a Song Thrush, a Snow Bunting 

 and a Brambling — in which actual exhaustion has compelled birds 

 to take a short rest on the sea at distances of from one to three 

 miles off this island. 



I ought not to omit mention of another very serious mis- 

 statement in regard to fowling and migration which, I regret to 

 say, has actually found a place in the only existing work of our 

 revered master, Naumann. In treating of the Woodcock he says 

 (vol. xiii. p. 399) that in Heligoland everj^ proprietor of a house also 

 owns a net — a lark-net, in fact — which, during the migration period, 

 is hung across the street from one house to the other, and on the 

 next morning is found full of birds. Strangers could not pass 

 through the streets of an evening without getting from one of these 

 nets into another. Now it seems to me utterly inexplicable by 

 what mistake or misapprehension this great observer could have 

 been led to pen what is not a mere exaggeration, but a perfect 

 invention, The only persons with whom he associated during his 

 short visit here in 1840 Avere the late Hilmar Freiherr von dem 

 jBusche-Lohe, whose early death is a matter for sincere regret ; 

 Keymers, whose name so frequently turns up in these pages ; Jacob 

 Lassen, an old fowler of Woodcocks, who has also been already 

 mentioned, and myself. All of these persons were thoroughly 

 acquainted with the conditions under which fowling is carried on in 

 Heligoland, and all the circumstances connected with migration on 

 this island, and they were equally incapable of giving to an 

 authority like Naumann information of any fact not based on the 

 strictest truth. Two such Woodcock nets did indeed exist at that 

 time on the lowland, in an open street leading to the shore, and 

 another was established for some years on the Upper Plateau, in a 

 street opening towards the sea ; but these were the only nets of this 

 kind which were to be found in the streets in 1840, or since that time. 



The statement, particularly, that all one has to do is to stretch 

 the net across the street in the evening in order to find it full of 

 birds in the morning, is a most serious misrepresentation of the 

 actual state of things. The birds are by no means to be caught 

 in this simple fashion; but the nets are handled in the manner 

 described above, and it is only in extremely exceptional cases 

 that a Woodcock, Thrush, or Owl will remain in them for more 

 than a moment after they have been caught in the meshes. In 

 some few isolated instances nets, it is true, are used which have 



