GEOGRAPHICAT. ASPECTS 91 



The autumn movements of the winter visitors 

 and birds of passage which arrive on the south-east 

 coast of England from Central Europe have already 

 been fully described. 



It is desirable that some allusion should here be 

 made to the supposed intermigration between Britain 

 and Heligoland. Much prominence was given in the 

 annual reports issued by the Committee appointed by the 

 British Association, and in Herr Gatke's book, Die Vogel- 

 warte Helgoland, to an intermigration between the famous 

 island off the mouth of the Elbe, and the Yorkshire and 

 Lincolnshire coasts, by direct east to west autumn 

 movements. Herr Giitke most obligingly communicated 

 the details of the bird-movements observed at Heligo- 

 land for four of the years (1883- 1886) during which the 

 inquiry was being prosecuted over the British area. 

 The two sets of data were carefully examined and 

 compared by me, with the result that I was not able 

 to find any indications whatever that would warrant 

 such a conclusion ; nor have any observations been 

 forthcoming since that date in support of such a 

 contention. It is not impossible nor improbable that 

 birds may occasionally cross the North Sea in the 

 latitude of Heligoland, but our present knowledge 

 compels us to believe that such flights must be re- 

 garded as exceptions, and not as the rule. This subject 

 was discussed by me in the Report of the British Asso- 

 ciation for 1896, p. 457. 



British Inland Routes.' — Thous^h much remains 

 to be ascertained regarding the inland routes used by 

 birds within the British area, yet we know more than 

 enough to enable us to aver that there are no import- 

 ant overland fly-lines for birds of passage such as 



