iSc)i.] Recent Leferatiue. 2QQ 



RECENT LITERATURE. 



Gatke's 'Die Vogelwarte Helgoland'.* — The long expected report of Merr 

 Giitkc's forty years' observations on the birds of Helgoland forms a beau- 

 tiful volume of over 6ao pages, replete with matter of the highest interest 

 to ornithologists and bird-lovers the world over. Helgoland, a rocky 

 islet at the moutli of the River Elbe, about a mile in length by a third of 

 a mile in width, rising almost vertically on all sides to a height of about 

 200 feet above the sea, has long been celebrated in ornithological annals 

 for its many waifs and strays of bird life, which through llerr Giitke have 

 found an ever alert and faithful chronicler. Helgoland is situated in one 

 of the great highways of bird migration, and from its isolated position 

 and height above the sea is a natural resting place for the hordes of 

 tired wanderers on tiieir long semi-annual journeys. At this little watch- 

 tower Herr Giitke has taken nearly four hundred species (396 is the exact 

 number recorded), including waifs -'from the far North, East, West, and 

 South," — from Siberia, North America, the Arctic Regions, Africa, and 

 Asia Minor. 



The work is edited by Dr. Rudolf Blasius, who dedicates it to the mem- 

 ory of his father who brought early to notice the remarkable observations 

 of Herr Giitke. The work is divided into three parts : I, Migration of 

 Birds; H, Change of Color in Birds without moulting; HI, Birds ob- 

 served at Helgoland. The first part contains chapters on (i) The ordinary 

 migration at Helgoland (pp. 3-23); (3) Direction of the migratory flights, 

 (pp. 24-45) 5 (3) Height at which inigratory birds fly (pp. 46-64) ; (4) 

 Rapidity of their flight (pp- 65-75) ; (5) Meteorological conditions afi^ect- 

 ing migration (pp. 76101) : (6) Migration in relation to age and sex 

 (pp. 103-115) ; (7) Exceptional appearances (pp. 116-133) ; (8) What guides 

 birds during migration.? (pp. 134-146) ; (g) What causes biids to migrate.'' 

 (pp. 148-152). 



Herr Gatke's observations throw iDUch light on many problems con- 

 nected with migration, and it is to be hoped that his 'Vogelwarte Helgo- 

 land' will be promply translated and made generally available to Englisii 

 readers. In his chapter on 'Migration in relation to age and sex' (Zug 

 nach Alter und Geschlecht), he combats vigorously what he considers the 

 erroneous ideas of the early times respecting the fall migration, namely, 

 that the old birds are the leaders, teachers, and guides of the young. He 

 gives it as incontrovertably proven by his observations on the birds of 

 Helgoland, that, in the fall, the young birds begin to appear within from 

 six to eight weeks after they leave the nest, and that the old birds of the 

 same species follow some two months later, and that the migration as a 

 rule is closed by the finest old males. In spring he finds it to "be the in- 



*Die I Vogelwarte Helgoland. 1 — | Von Heinrich Gatke, | .... [=5 lines, titles] 

 I — I Herausgegeben | von | Professor|Dr. Rudolf Blasius. | — | Braunschweig | Joh • 

 Heinr. Meyer. | 1891. | Roy. 8vo,611.,pp. 1-609, and frontispiece (portrait of author). 



