Mr. H. Durnford on North-Frisian Ornithology. 393 



a pair of Buteo vulgaris on the heath near Husum. One had 

 just caught a bird of some sort^ and perched on the telegraph- 

 wire with it in its claws. 



The North-Frisian Islands may be divided into three 

 classes : — first, those surrounded by an artificial embank- 

 ment to resist the encroachments of the sea, and others which 

 are of precisely the same character but have not this protec- 

 tion (these are mostly highly cultivated and pretty thickly 

 peopled) j secondly, those Avhich have a natural barrier of 

 sandhills, which are not so much cultivated as the first, neither 

 is their population so numerous ; thirdly, the small islands 

 with about one house on each, standing in the centre, and 

 raised some twenty or thirty feet above the surrounding level. 

 These last islands are very low and flat, and are frequently 

 covered, except the little raised centre, by the sea during high 

 winter tides. They are inhabited by one or two shepherds, 

 who have a flock of sheep and perhaps a few cows and oxen 

 to tend. All communication with the mainland or nearest 

 island is often cut off" for many months together diuing the 

 winter. On Sylt, belonging to the second class, the sandhills 

 or dunes are very extensive, reaching from List, at the north, 

 to the southernmost point of the island, about twenty miles, 

 and are in one place as much as three miles across. The 

 North-Frisian group embraces about twenty islands, large 

 and small. Our route was from Hamburg to Husum by train, 

 thence by steamboat to Nordstrand ; from there we crossed 

 on foot to Sudfall. On leaving Sudfall we returned to Hu- 

 sum and took train to Tondern, travelling from there to 

 Hoyer by diligence, a wretched machine, in which one is 

 dragged along at the rate of four miles an hour. At Hoyer 

 we took passage in the steamer plying between that place and 

 Munkmarsch, Sylt. After spending three days on this island 

 we took an open boat to the north point of Amrum; and 

 thence, after travelling through the island, we crossed in a 

 fishing-boat, half-decked, to Wyk, Fohr, the largest and most 

 important town on the islands. From Wyk we found a mail- 

 boat sailing to Dagebiill, on the mainland, about halfway be- 

 tween Husum and Hoyer; and we accordingly availed our- 



