THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 323 



135. Pallas' Dipper [PALLAS' WASSERSCHMATZER]. 

 CINCLUS PALLASI, Temminck. 



Heligolandish : Swart Water-Troossel = B/aci Water Thrush. 

 Sturnus cinclus. Var. Pallas, Zoogr. Ross.-Asiat., i. 426. 



Cinch de Pallas. Temminck, Manuel, i. 177. 



In the autumn of the year 1847 a powerful mass-migration of 

 species from the far East passed over Heligoland ; and on the 31st 

 of December of that year an example of this rare visitor was seen, 

 but unfortunately not shot. A uniformly and entirely dark- 

 coloured Dipper was, later on, seen by Jan Aeuckens one of the 

 three brothers sitting, at a distance of from ten to fifteen paces from 

 him, on the northern bulwark by the sea : not having a gun with 

 him, he was unable to shoot the bird. A confusion of the species is 

 not to be thought of in the case of experienced ornithologists like 

 the three brothers Aeuckens. 



The home of this species is, according to Pallas, in the countries 

 around Lake Baikal, Kamtschatka, and the islands lying off its 

 shores. The American species, which is also uniformly dark- 

 coloured, does not appear to be identical with the present species. 



Wren Troglodytes. These merry little creatures are, under 

 more or less differing forms, residents in the whole northern hemi- 

 sphere. It is difficult to say into how many valid species they are 

 to be separated, since several species, which had been regarded as 

 good, afterwards turned out to be intermediate forms between two 

 species. Thus, according to Alfred Newton's view, T. borealis of 

 Iceland and the Faroes is only an intermediate form of the Euro- 

 pean T. parvulus and the American T. aedon. T. hirtensis also, a 

 species sustained by Seebohm for St. Kilda, seems not to have 

 been established. Consequently Europe would possess only one 

 species, which occurs abundantly in Heligoland. 



136. Common Wren [ZAUNKONIG]. 

 TROGLODYTES PARYULUS, Koch. 



Heligolandish : Tschiirrn. Probably onomatopoeic, after the call-note. 



Troglodytes parvulus. Naumann, iii. 725. 



Common Wren. Dresser, iii. 219. 



Troglodite ordinaire. Temminck, Manuel, i. 233, iii. 157. 



Though perhaps the smallest of all birds resident in Europe, 

 the Wren seems nevertheless to be endowed with the most iinper- 



