THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 317 



annually during both periods of migration. For America Audubon 

 gives three species, one of which Regulus calendula has, accord- 

 ing to Harting, been once shot in Scotland in the summer of 1858. 



130. Golden-crested Wren [GELBKOPFIGES GOLDHAHNCHEN]. 

 REGULUS FLAVICAPILLUS, Naumann. 1 



Heligolandish : Liitj Miiiisk = Little Wren. 



Regulus flavicapillus. Naumann, iii. 968. 



Golden-crested Wren. Dresser, ii. 453. 



Roitelet ordinaire. Temminck, Manuel, i. 229, iii. 157. 



It is indeed a matter of wonderment how these tiny birds, 

 apparently endowed with but poor capacity for flight, yet venture 

 merrily and cheerfully on their journey across the sea, and succeed 

 in accomplishing it safely and happily, and that too during the 

 long dark nights of October. And still further, their migration is 

 performed with perfect regularity year after year, and conducts 

 them not only in hundreds, but at times in many hundreds of 

 thousands, in one night to this island. On the following morning 

 their merry call-note resounds from the bushes and shrubs of ah 1 the 

 gardens, and even the grassy plain of the Upper Plateau teems with 

 them from one end to the other. The rubble, too, at the base of 

 the cliff is alive with them, and they disport themselves merrily 

 among the vessels and boats on the shore, actively pursuing the 

 aquatic insects in the sea-wrack which is washed up by the tide, 

 even to the very edge of the foaming waves. 



The migration of this little bird commences in spring, towards 

 the end of March sometimes even rather earlier and continues to 

 the end of April. The autumn migration begins with September, 

 continues throughout the whole of October, and sometimes even 

 extends into November. 



The bird arrives generally in fairly large numbers during the 

 autumn migration, sometimes indeed in truly astonishing quantities, 

 as for instance, among other years, in 1882. The earliest individuals 

 appeared on the 8th of September, and the migration proceeded, 

 with occasional interruptions, in moderate numbers throughout the 

 month ; with the approach of October, however, a considerable in- 

 crease in the number of migrants took place, the birds appearing 

 daily in very large numbers ; and on the night of the 28th the 

 migration assumed such vast dimensions that even an approximate 

 computation of their numbers was quite out of the question. Per- 

 haps the simile of a snowstorm may help to convey an idea of the 



1 Regulus cristafw, Koch. 



