THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 579 



the grcon waves and snowy surf which beat around the foundations 

 of their rocky home. 



The breeding season of the Guillemots commences in the 

 second week in April, all the birds making their appearance at one 

 and the same time ; this, however, need not surprise us, for they 

 tVcquently visit their breeding stations in their full number during 

 all the winter months. On these visits they generally make their 

 apjiearance early in the morning, remaining while it is high water 

 and again disappearing with the setting in of the ebb. It is won- 

 derful how several thousands of these birds manage to congregate 

 for a rendezvous of this kind, inasmuch as throughout the whole 

 winter they are only met with scattered on the sea, three, or at 

 most five individuals, being the greatest number ever seen diving 

 or swimminsr tocfether at that season. 



Towards the end of June and at the beginning of July (in 1882 

 on the 2nd of July) the young birds leave the cliff, and are con- 

 ducted by their parents down to the sea ; they are at that time still 

 very small, covered with a close fur-like down and hairy feathers, 

 and as yet display no trace of their future flight-feathers. Many 

 different views have been expressed as to how these young creatures, 

 which for the most part have been bred on steep cliffs several 

 hundred feet above the sea, manage to get down to the water ; in 

 many quarters it has been asserted that the old birds carried their 

 young down on their backs. This, however, is an utter impossi- 

 bility. Any one who has had an opportunity of observing the manner 

 in which the Guillemots fly ofl' from the steep face of a cliff' will 

 have noticed that this movement partakes but little of the nature 

 of a flight ; but that the birds, with their heads directed downwards, 

 really drop off at an angle of less than 25° ; that this line of fall 

 remains almost unchanged for the first fifty feet, and even then 

 only slowly and gradually passes in a curve into a horizontal line 

 of flight, continued at a very low elevation above the surface of the 

 water; that a bird leaving its seat on the rocks in the manner 

 described could not possibly carry anything on its back will 

 need no further explanation. In Heligoland this descent of the 

 young birds from the cliff to the sea is accomplished in the follow- 

 ing manner. On very fine calm evenings at the end of June or the 

 beginning of July one may hear soon after sunset, from a distance 

 of more than a mile, the confused noise of a thousand voices, the 

 callsof the parent birds — arr-r-r-r — orr-r-r-r — err-r-r-r — andmingled 

 with these the countless tiny voices of their young offspring on the 

 face of the cliff' — irrr-r-r-idd — irrr-r-r-idd — uttered in timid and 

 anxious accents. The old birds swim about quite close to the foot of 

 the cliff', and the tone of their incessant calls has in it something really 



