36 



weather. In the manner of their performance, however, they 

 do not differ from the flights at the normal periods of the year. 

 These individuals, moreover, have long since left their nesting 

 stations, and there can be nothing suggestive of a broad front 

 corresponding in breadth* to the latter, in the manner in which 

 these late birds pass the island. Why, therefore, should Herr 

 Gatke conclude that the latter mode of flight is characteristic 

 of the migrations of the same species which take place in the 

 ordinary course, but which do not visibly differ in the manner in 

 which they are conducted from those under notice. 



As further evidence of, and in confirmation of his theory of an 

 east-to-west autumnal flight, Herr Gatke frequently refers to 

 the observations of a well-known ornithologist, viz., Mr. John 

 Cordeaux, a gentleman living near the Lincolnshire coast in a 

 locality almost due west of Heligoland, and whose opinions he, 

 in common with all naturalists, holds in high respect. As an 

 example, on p. 26 he writes : " Mr. John Cordeaux .... 

 informs me that the bands of migrating Hooded Crows do not 

 alight immediately upon reaching the coast, but continue their 

 journey inland in a westerly direction," and other notes to the 

 same effect. That the latter gentleman, however, does not 

 intend his remarks to apply to all immigrants arriving on our 

 east coast may be readily shown from his writings in other 

 places. Eeferring to two great rushes of birds in 1892, com- 

 prising Eedstarts, Whitethroats, Eobins, Pied and Spotted 

 Fly-catchers, Wheatears, Hedge Sparrows, Goldcrests, Grey 

 Shrikes, Larks, Eing Ousels, Blackbirds, Eedwings, Thrushes, 

 Willow Wrens, and a few others, he remarks : " In both 

 these cases of great rushes, which I have cited under similar 

 meteorological conditions, great flights of immigrants were evi- 

 dently passing the North Sea, probably from north-east to south- 

 west, when the easterly gales caught them on the flank and drove 

 them helter skelter on to the east coast " (Zool., 1892, p. 420). 

 And again in the same journal (p. 227, 1893) he expresses the 

 opinion that the migratory Eock Pipits which visit the east coast 

 in the autumn are almost exclusively the Scandinavian form from 

 the north-east. 



Still more to the point are further remarks bearing on the ques- 



