MIGRATION 565 
Heligoland, so far as is known, is the place where they recur with the 
greatest frequency and intensity. Two instances given by Herr Gitke 
may here suffice. From 10 o'clock on the night of the 28th of 
October 1882, to the next morning, GoLpDcrEsTs eddied, thick as 
flakes in a heavy snow-fall, round the light-house there, on the 
morrow 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 with 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.2 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 northward with a haste that would 
seem incredible. But on this as on so many other points we must be 
content to await the results of further observation and experiment * 
1  Williarden” is the author’s word, 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 springis ‘‘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. 
3 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). 
4 It is with no little diffidence that I demur to the acceptance of Herr Giitke’s 
estimate of the speed at which Birds travel. Against the evidence adduced by 
him must be set that collected by others; and from my own 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 
