MIGRA TION 565 



Heligoland, so far as is known, is the place where they recur with the 

 greatest frequency and intensity. Two instances given by Herr Gatke 

 may here suffice. From 10 o'clock on the night of the 28th of 

 October 1882, to the next morning, Goldcrests eddied, thick as 

 flakes in a heavy snow-fall, round the light-house there, on the 

 moxTow literally swarming on every square foot of the island ; and 

 twelve months later Larks in myriads ^ thronged to its bright beams 

 for four nights in succession, accompanied by Starlings in hardly fewer 

 numbers. These great hosts consist usually of many kinds of birds, 

 congruous only in their congress — Larks and Lapwings, Starlings and 

 Sandpipers, Fieldfares and Curlews, Golden-crested Wrens and Golden 

 Plovers, Oyster-catchers and Owls — while the air is filled with their 

 cries, among which are several that are wholly unrecognizable, for it 

 would seem that some birds have a language that they use only 

 while migrating. Otherwise is it Avith the return of the wanderers 

 in spring, and then the exciting scenes of autumn are seldom if ever 

 presented, yet under a moonless and clouded sky the wakeful ear may 

 often catch positive evidence of what is going on aloft, though owing 

 to the smaller numbers (for at that season it is only the birds which 

 are about to breed that pass) and the shorter nights, the movement 

 attracts far less attention.^ Generally troop after troop of the 

 travellers succeeds in orderly, and what has been called " wave- 

 like ", fashion,^ varying indeed in rapidity according to the species, 

 but taken as a whole in comparatively little else. With some birds 

 the progress is very leisurely made, while others, there is reason 

 to think, project themselves north Avard mth a haste that Avould 

 seem incredible. But on this as on so many other points Ave must be 

 content to aAvait the results of further observation and experiment ^ 



^ ^^ Milliarden" is the author's \\'ord, but that seems hardly credible. 



2 So much less indeed that a writer has flippantly remarked {Contemporary 

 Review, July 1880, p. 1) that the return of birds in spring is "like the Kingdom 

 of Heaven which cometh not with observation," forgetful of the fact that all we 

 know of Migration is due to observation, and nearly all we do not know to want 

 of it. 



^ Such a "wave," though it was more like a stream, in Nova Scotia has been 

 described by Mr. Philip Cox [Auk, 1889, pp. 241-243) and a succession of "waves " 

 in Pennsylvania and New Jersey with a diagrammatic representation of them by 

 Mr. Whitmer Stone {op. cit. 1891, pp. 194-198). 



•* It is with no little diffidence that I demur to the acceptance of Herr Gatke's 

 estimate of the speed at which Bii'ds travel. Against the evidence adduced by 

 him must be set that collected by others ; and from my ovm. experience I am 

 persuaded that there is much exaggeration — unintentional of course — in many 

 observations that have been made on this subject. It is very well to believe that in 

 autumn Grey Crows travelling across Heligoland from east to west, pass over 

 the island from 8 o'clock A.M. to 2 p.m. ; and it is equally well to believe that 

 Grey Crows arrive on the coast of Lincolnshire (for which it may be allowed that 

 the Crows first mentioned are making) from the eastward between 11 a.m. and 



