VELOCITY OF THE MIGRATION FLIGHT 71 



migratory flight, but not one of these regular migrants has ever 

 been known to tarry on the island for longer than the remainder of 

 the day on which, or at the dawn of which, it first made its 

 appearance. After a night's incessant flight, a greater or smaller 

 portion of the succeeding day is all the birds need for satisfying 

 their hunger or recovering from such fatigue as may have resulted 

 from the exertions of their journey. I myself have never noticed 

 cases of fatigue or actual exhaustion such as people tell about 

 birds of the Snipe family on this island in regard to any birds 

 which have landed here during their migration either by day or 

 night, with the possible exception of three solitary but interesting 

 instances in which I observed small land-birds resting on the sea 

 half a mile from the island. 



In the case of many Thrushes, Larks, Buntings, Finches, Sand- 

 pipers, and other northern species, the interruption of the autumn 

 migration above referred to and with part of them its actual 

 termination occurs, when the birds have not got further than 

 central or even northern Germany. Very few species, however, make 

 a stay of this kind on this rugged island rock. The few that do so 

 are almost invariably Rock Pipits, Snow Buntings, Sanderlings, 

 Purple Sandpipers, and Dunlins, and, in rarer instances, a few Larks, 

 Coal Titmice, or Chaffinches. Fieldfares, and especially Blackbirds, 

 may also be seen frequently for weeks together roving about here in 

 the winter ; these, however, are not birds which have brought their 

 migration to a close, but individuals which have been driven out 

 of the Scandinavian peninsula by frost and snow. Of these the 

 old male Blackbirds immediately depart again for the north on the 

 advent of milder weather. Still it can scarcely be said of any one 

 of these species that they had intended to pass the winter here. 

 The Rock Pipit and the Purple Sandpiper are perhaps the only 

 ones of which this may be asserted, since they are represented 

 without any break throughout the whole of the cold season. 

 In regard to the latter species, however, it cannot be determined 

 whether the birds that remain are always the same individuals 

 or whether some of them do not travel farther and are replaced by 

 others. It is, however, nearly certain that the Rock Pipit does 

 actually remain throughout the winter. Moreover, one bird, the 

 tiny, cheerful, little Wren, faithfully abides with us throughout the 

 stern season, one or two of these winsome creatures being always 

 met with throughout the winter months even during temporary 

 spells of very severe weather. At these times the caves and grottos 

 at the foot of the cliff offer it a shelter, and probably also food in 

 abundance, for the bird preserves the same cheerful demeanour 

 alike in a dense snowstorm as in the hours of brightest sunshine. 



