28 THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 



far west is furnished by the Honey Buzzard. The breeding zone 

 of this species extends on this side of the Arctic Circle, from 

 Scandinavia, through European and (according to Pallas) the whole 

 of central Asiatic Russia. This bird in fact must breed in large 

 numbers in the boundless forests of these two regions, for only 

 nesting areas of this extent could produce the vast numbers of 

 individuals which sometimes, in the course of September, pass 

 by this island on a westerly course. In Germany and France it is 

 met with as a breeding species only locally and irregularly, while 

 in Spain it is never met with as such at all. If, therefore, the 

 autumn migration of this Buzzard proceeds in a southerly or 

 south-westerly direction, it should be seen in large numbers from 

 somewhere near Lake Baikal to Greece and Italy; whereas, on 

 the contrary, the bird at that time occurs only extremely rarely 

 and exceptionally in Turkestan, on the Lower Wolga, and in Greece 

 (Sewertzoff, Dresser, and von der Miihle). At Malta (Wright) only 

 small companies of five, or at most twelve, individuals are seen. 

 In Sardinia it has not been observed at all; and Major A. von 

 Homeyer has failed to meet with it even on the Balearic Islands. 

 In the north-east of Africa the bird has only very rarely been met 

 with, and in Algiers only in solitary instances. 



On the other hand, this Buzzard appears at Gibraltar and the 

 opposite coast of Africa in large numbers. According to Favier 

 (Irby, Ornithology of Gibraltar), droves of over a hundred 

 individuals have been seen during the spring migration at Tangier 

 flying towards the north, and Irby reports similarly from Gibraltar, 

 stating that the migration extended over twenty days. Both ob- 

 servers at the same time remark that these birds are seen much 

 less numerously in autumn, the flights then rarely exceeding fifteen 

 individuals. Lord Lilford, however, observed in the interior of Spain 

 large flocks in September, migrating southwards. This difference 

 in the intensity of the spring and autumn migration is however 

 merely an apparent one, since at the latter season the Honey 

 Buzzards travel also during the night hours, and hence numbers as 

 large as those seen so frequently in the spring by day at Gibraltar, 

 in autumn pass across the sea unobserved during the night. 



In Heligoland, for instance, Honey Buzzards are frequently 

 killed in autumn, during the capture of birds at the lighthouse 

 lantern at night. This has, however, never yet happened in spring. 



The fact that the Honey Buzzard does not reach Portugal (Tait, 

 Birds of Portugal, Ibis, 1887) also proves, what has been already 

 called attention to in regard to Hooded Crows, that it is not the 

 sight of the sea which induces birds migrating in a westerly direc- 

 tion to turn suddenly south, but that this deviation forms, from no 



