342 CouES, Giitkc's Ileligolaiid. [ ^,"J^ 



Taking- the four piecedini;- lists as thev stand, A\e have the tollowing 

 siiininarv : — 



Stragglers, for the most part entireh' be\ond their normal range. 200 

 Migrants, more or less regular, mainly in spring and fall. . . . 131 



Winterers, in some cases appearing at other seasons 50 



Breeders, but in most cases not regularly so. ... .... 16 



Total .... 397 



This exhibit is simply phenomenal. In the first place the total 

 is enormous, for such an apparently inelegible and even forbid- 

 ding spot in comparison with almost any fairly favored locality 

 of such restricted extent, say in Germany, Great Britain, or the 

 United States, where a list of 300 species would be a pretty large 

 one. In the next place, and especially, the relative proportions 

 of stragglers, migrants, winterers, and breeders are far and away 

 from what is known of any other locality. There is no question of 

 the approximate accuracy of the lists, whatever be the requisite 

 rectification of Gatke's determinations in a very few cases, or any 

 little readjustment of the figures for the four categories I have 

 made out. No doubt Herr Giitke has been imposed upon in 

 certain cases which he admitted upon hear-say evidence, and 

 perhaps neither J. A. Harvie-Brown nor W. E. Clarke has com- 

 pared Rosenstock's translation with the original German. But 

 no such changes as these points may involve can affect the result 

 materially. We have therefore to seek some explanation of the 

 anomalous Heligolandish ornis. 



The most obvious factor in the case is of course Herr Giitke 

 himself and the very unusual length of time which he has devoted 

 to an extremely close scrutiny of the avifauna of a little bare 

 island where birds cannot easily escape observation. We have 

 thus a remarkable man, working under exceptionally favorable 

 circumstances. Moreover, the record goes back of him — to 1827 

 at least — and in the general result we have the cooperation and 

 contributions of several expert gunners, fowlers and taxidermists, 

 to say nothing of a generation or two of boys with their pea- 

 shooters. We should therefore expect a large total, and a large 

 proportion of rarities. But after making all due allowances to 

 eliminate the " personal equation," the main features of the case 

 appear to be intrinsic, attributable to Heligoland itself, in its 



