THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 205 



is too strong for the east-to-west movement of their migration- 

 flight, and, coming obliquely from behind, greatly impedes their 

 progress. This inconvenience they endeavour to meet by setting 

 their head and body towards the south, so that the wind meets them 

 obliquely from in front on the left side ; the astonishing part of this 

 manoeuvre, however, is that they do not now move straight south, 

 as one might naturally expect, but continue to move steadily, and 

 with imdiininished speed, on their westerly course. This happens 

 mostly at a height of from one hundred and fifty to two hundred 

 feet above the island. It is a peculiar phenomenon that on 

 autumn days, on which strong migrations of Hooded Crows take 

 place, only isolated examples of Woodcocks are met with, or they are 

 altogether absent, although, according to the opinion of the oldest 

 and most experienced gunners and fowlers, wind and weather are in 

 every way equally favourable to both species. Inasmuch as the 

 Woodcocks make their appearance quite early at dawn, while the 

 first flights of the Crows do not arrive until eight o'clock, we can 

 hardly conclude that the former birds entertain any objection to the 

 latter, but we ought rather to assume that meteorological conditions 

 of a nature too delicate to be recognised by human capacity restrain 

 the Woodcocks from migrating on days like these, or, what is pro- 

 bably more correct, cause them to travel at such heights as are 

 beyond the bounds of our perception. Golden-crested Wrens, on 

 the other hand, invariably migrate in company with the Crows, 

 and mostly in very large numbers ; and the native sportsman, who 

 happens to bring home with him one of these tiny guests, will pro- 

 bably tell his little boy that the Crows carried these pretty wee 

 songsters over on their backs ; but this merely by way of a joke, 

 and by no means with that perfect seriousness with which people 

 do not hesitate to dish up the fairy tale of the good big birds, who 

 carry the weak little ones on their backs across the sea. 



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 



