THE HOODED CROW. 167 



gration of Hoodies from the i2th to the 3oth of October, Messrs. T. H. Nelson, 

 and F. Pilling observe : " The Hoodies are generally noticed in largest numbers 

 during thick weather in October and November." According to Seebohm this 

 species migrates by day, and Ga'tke says : " In the autumn, and with favourable 

 weather, the migration commences at about eight o'clock in the morning, with 

 flocks of from fifty to one hundred individuals ; the movement soon passes into a 

 stream of flocks, consisting of from a hundred to at least five hundred examples, 

 and continues in this manner, without gaps of any kind, until two o'clock in the 

 afternoon. We can scarcely, in a case of this kind, assume that we are dealing 

 with a stream or route of migration which just chances to cross Heligoland, for 

 the movement proceeds in equal magnitude from east to west as far as the eye 

 can reach. More than this, on days when powerful migrations of this kind take 

 place, the migration- front or column has been seen from boats eight miles north 

 of the island to stretch farther to the north, as far as the limits of vision extend ; 

 while on the south it reached, simultaneously and in equal magnitude, up the 

 Weser, at least as far as Bremerhaven, as was determined from the steamer which 

 regularly plies between this island and the latter place. We thus get a migration 

 column of at least thirty-six geographical miles in breadth." 



Herr Ga'tke proceeds to make many other observations of considerable interest, 

 which it would be well worth our readers' while to peruse, but for which we 

 cannot find space here ; nevertheless, his concluding paragraphs are, we consider, 

 important ; as showing how little the agency of man can affect the extinction of 

 species, so far as it is directed merely against birds, their nests and eggs : 

 " Finally, I would add one further remark, as regards the position of these Crows 

 in the economy of nature. Everywhere the protection of birds creates the greatest 

 interest, and man is always put in the foreground as the greatest enemy of the 

 feathered creation. Now, although the destruction of song-birds and other small 

 species, as it appears to be carried on in Italy, ought to be resisted by all possible 

 means ; nevertheless all that is offered for sale, in the way of eggs and small 

 birds, in Italy during one complete migration period, would scarcely equal the 

 quantity of eggs and nestlings destroyed by the Hooded Crows during one single 

 summer day. 



"It is perhaps true that the number of individuals of Hooded Crows becomes 

 nowhere apparent in such preponderating quantity as in Heligoland, in consequence 

 of which their destructive influence is under-estimated ; but if one had the oppor- 

 tunity of seeing the hosts of them which travel past during two months of 

 autumn, in uninterrupted sequence, and return in the spring, as is the case here, 

 where no tree, wood, or hill, impedes the view ; and if one at the same time 



