Vol. XIII 

 1896 



Allen, Gatke's 'Heligoland! 1^7 



GATKE'S 'HELIGOLAND. 1 



BY J. A. ALLEN. 



Herr Gatke's 'Heligoland' is beyond question a remarkable 

 book. Its author and the island from which it takes its name are 

 both unique in the annals of ornithological literature. It is not 

 therefore surprising that the work has been received with almost 

 unexampled interest by bird lovers and bird students the world 

 over. ' Heligoland' was originally published in German in 1892, 

 and has now received the compliment of being made accessible 

 to English readers. 



Heligoland is a small island at the mouth of the Elbe in the 

 North Sea, about fifteen miles distant from the mainland. It is 

 triangular in outline, slightly over a mile in length, but much less 

 than a square mile in area. Being treeless and almost destitute 

 of shrubbery, it affords slight chance of concealment for the birds 

 which visit it, often in enormous numbers. But its bird popula- 

 tion is mainly transient, only one species of land bird, the ever- 

 present House Sparrow, being a regular breeder in any numbers. 

 The island is thus a resting place merely — ' Die Vogelwarte 

 Helgoland,* to borrow the expressive German title of Herr Gatke's 

 book- -for migrants, that make it a temporary place of refuge 

 in their long journeys, in most cases tarrying for only a few 

 hours. It also lies at the intersection of two prominent lines of 

 migration, the one a north and south route, the other an east and 

 west route. Here Herr Giitke for fifty years, aided by fowlers, 

 taxidermists, and bird catchers of all sorts, has kept an incessant 

 watch upon the ever-fluctuating bird population of this " bare and 

 rugged isle," with the result of chronicling as visitants to Heligo- 

 land not less than 39S species, including a large number of waifs 

 and strays from distant and in some instances most unexpected 

 quarters of the globe. As a result, as already said, Heligoland 

 and Herr Giitke have long been famous in the annals of orni- 



""■ Heligoland as an Ornithological Observatory, the Result of Fifty Years' 

 Experience. By Heinrich Gatke. Translated by Rudolph Rosenstock. Edin- 

 burgh: David Douglas. 1895. 8vo, pp. xii, 599. 



