1^2 Allen, Gatke's 'Heligoland.' I A "u 



this favored island on the general subject of migration, when, as 

 is so often the case, they run counter to the observations of orni- 

 thologists at large, with more favorable opportunities for getting at 

 the general facts of migration as displayed over wide areas. It is 

 not an agreeable task to pick Haws in a work received in many 

 quarters almost as oracular, — a work, moreover, so pleasantly 

 written, and apparently with such sincerity of purpose, and con- 

 taining so much of real value ; yet to let such errors pass unchal- 

 lenged is not the way to promote truth, or to advance the science 

 of ornithology. 



Part III (pp. 167-588) gives an 'Account of the Birds 

 observed in Heligoland.' These number 396 (4- 1 added at p. x 

 = total 397), — an extraordinarily large number for a locality of 

 such limited area. A careful synopsis of the list (see Coues, 

 Auk. XII, 1895, pp. 324-342), however, shows that fully one-half 

 are stragglers. Thus, during fifty years, 97 species have been 

 taken or observed only once each ; ^,3 species, only twice each ; 

 and 70 species, three times or more. About 130 species are 

 regular migrants either in spring or fall or during both seasons, 

 while about 50 are more or less regular winter residents. Some 

 16 species have been known to breed, but some of them in only 

 one or two instances, the others, except one, more or less 

 irregularly. 



Among the stragglers, the occurrence of fifteen exclusively 

 North American species is recorded, which Herr Giitke shows 

 (p. 124) most probably in nearly every instance reached Heligo- 

 land by a journey across the North Atlantic. Other stragglers 

 are casual visitors from the far North ; many others, from the far 

 East, and others still from the South, are species which have far 

 overstepped their usual boundaries. 



In commenting on the large number of ' casual visitants ' that 

 have been taken on the little island of Heligoland. Herr Giitke 

 considers that their appearance in such numbers on so small an 

 area is proof that an incomparably larger number must annually 

 pass across Europe. If, he says " twenty, fifty, or even a hundred 

 examples of Richard's Pipit occur here in one day [of course an 

 exceptional occurrence], these numbers can only represent a 

 minute fraction of the quite incomputable quantity of these birds 



