82 THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 



ot this kind preceding wintry weather almost always consist 

 exclusively of quite old individuals, for the most part males ; thus, 

 of about a hundred Larks obtained during that night, nearly all 

 were remarkably large males, measuring, with few exceptions, 

 7 inches from the forehead to the tip of the tail. Naumann 

 mentions 7 inches as the greatest length of these birds. Such 

 Blackbirds as are seen under these conditions are almost, without 

 exception, in black plumage, with orange beaks, i.e. old males. 



Retarded night-migrations of the kind just described still occur 

 with a certain amount of regularity, though not on an equally large 

 scale, in every year. These are, however, not to be classed with 

 another exceptional migration-phenomenon, similar in character 

 but of much rarer occurrence, and hardly ever witnessed before 

 February. In this case, also, enormous flocks of migrants, princi- 

 pally seed-eating species, make their appearance quite suddenly ; 

 but instead of arriving by night, and before the setting-in of 

 snowy weather, these birds make their appearance by day, after the 

 wintry conditions have already set in, and mostly during very severe 

 cold and snow. The flocks in question are made up of millions of 

 Larks, Twites, Linnets, Greenfinches, and lesser numbers of Gold- 

 finches, Yellow and Common Buntings ; in some cases, flocks of 

 Snipe are associated with these birds,' flying about exhausted, like 

 droves of Partridges. All these birds arrive during the early hours of 

 the morning and forenoon, first appearing, if I remember rightly, from 

 a rather more northerly direction than usual. Their flight is weak, 

 they are all very lean, and appear to be very hungry, inasmuch as 

 they at once alight on every strip of grass still free from snow, and 

 on the green cabbages in the gardens ; there they run about picking 

 at every bit of green which is not yet covered by snow, with their 

 feathers all on end, and presenting a generaUy sorry appearance. 

 There is thus a vast difference between these birds and those other 

 flocks previously discussed, whose arrival has anticipated the incle- 

 ment weather. While these earlier birds are well nourished, espe- 

 cially the Lapwings and Golden Plovers, and hasten past in rapid 

 and vigorous flight without requiring rest, the later ones have evi- 

 dently been reduced to the utmost need through lack of food. It 

 remains to be explained why these birds, unlike the others, did not 

 obey the premonitory signs of the approaching weather-changes, or 

 depart immediately on the occurrence of the snowfall. The reason 

 probably is, that, owing to the advanced period of the year, having 

 already either reached their winter quarters, or districts near them, 

 these birds had lost in great part the instinctive sense of the 

 necessity of an autumn migration; that they resisted such faint 

 migration impulses as were still left them, until the utmost need 



