%£"] General Nptes. 89 



Gatke's Birds of Heligoland. — -No work since the days of Audubon 

 has come to my notice which has interested me to the same extent as 

 this wonderfully instructive book. One reason for this is that the 

 knowledge I have acquired regarding some of our birds has been gleaned 

 during my long experience as a sportsman on the Atlantic seaboard. (It 

 is now many years since I learned that the most successful way of secur- 

 ing birds is through a knowledge of their habits.) I cannot therefore 

 fail to recognize and appreciate how dwarfed become the observations of 

 the ordinary observer in comparison with the life work of Mr. Giitke, 

 who has for half a century so patiently gathered the facts he now sets 

 before the ornithologists of both continents. It seems impossible to 

 read Gatke's book without being impressed with the importance of his 

 many years of painstaking research, and his originality and boldness of 

 thought. As Dr. Coues has rightly written in his review of this book in 

 the last number of ' The Auk ' (Vol. XII, p. 322), 1895: "There is no 

 Heligoland but Heligoland, and Giitke is its prophet.'* It is nevertheless 

 equally true that all of the statements contained in this work cannot be 

 accepted as facts, as far as they relate to North American birds. For this 

 reason I desire to call the attention of American readers of the book, as 

 well as others, to certain of the author's claims regarding some American 

 birds which he, refers to in illustration of certain of his statements. I do 

 this with the greatest deference. 



On page 16, five lines from the foot of the page, we read: ••When one 

 thinks of numbers of individuals such as these, which cannot be grasped 

 by human intelligence, it seems absurd to talk of a conceivable diminu- 

 tion in the number of birds being effected through the agency of man." 

 In North America, such a statement, in my opinion, can scarcely be 

 assented to, as witness the destruction of American Golden Plovers 

 {Charadrius dotntnicus), Kskimo Curlews (Numenius borealis), and 

 Bar tram ian Sandpipers {Bar/ ram in longicauda}, as also other species, 

 in the Mississippi Valley during the spring migration to their northern 

 breeding grounds. Also witness the fabulous quantities of eggs of the 

 Water-birds taken in the far Northwest, as also on the Northeast coasts of 

 North America. 



On page 44 he savs: "We have stated in the course of this chapter 

 that birds perform the journey from their winter quarters to the breeding 

 stations, if possible, in one aminterrupted flight." In North America, as 

 far as my observation shows, the reverse is the case with some of the 

 Water-birds. The American Golden Plovers, Eskimo Curlews, Bartra- 

 mian Sandpipers, and Black-bellied Plovers (Charadrius squatarola') all 

 linger in the Mississippi Valley, and the last named on the Atlantic 

 coast, on their way to their breeding grounds. 



On page 51, in writing of Diving Ducks, etc., he says : " All these birds 

 when alive and undisturbed (as also do their carcases) float so lightly on 

 the water that they scarcely make any noticeable depression in it." I 

 have always regarded the three varieties of Scoters (Oidcmia americana, 



