THE PERILS OF MIGRATION. 183 



caroUnensis, Dendroeca virens, and DoUclionyx 

 onjzivora, the latter the wide-ranging Rice Bird, 

 which, as we have already seen, wanders to the 

 Bermudas and the Galapagos. It is also very 

 interesting to remark how so many species of 

 Phylloscopi (of which our Willow Wren, PhyL 

 loscopus trochiliLs, is a typical species) lose their 

 way on migration, and travel West from Central 

 Asia, instead of South to India and elsewhere. 

 Individuals of the various species of East Palaearctic 

 Buntings {Emberiza) blunder almost equally as 

 much. 



All this is very interesting, but we expected much 

 more from the way Heligoland has been lauded for 

 the past twenty years. Now what are the real facts 

 of the case ? The list of birds obtained on Heligo- 

 land includes no more than forty species that have 

 not hitherto been observed in the British Islands, 

 although there can be no doubt whatever that many 

 of them have visited us. As a set-off against this, 

 however, the list of British birds contains no less 

 than fifty wanderers (not nomadic migrants) that 

 have not yet been noticed on Heligoland ; and we 

 may reasonably conclude that they have not visited 

 the island under any ordinary circumstances, or they 

 would either have been captured or at least identi- 

 fied by such sharp eyes as can determine Phyllosco- 

 pus fuscatus from every other Willow W>en (at least 

 tw^enty-five species), even when alive and at liberty ! 



The following table will serve to demonstrate 

 these facts : — 



