348 THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 



Europe, I will give here a few extracts from earlier years of my 

 ornithological diary : 



1848. September. From 17th to end of month, shot over thirty 



A. richardi very many throughout October the last 

 on the 29th of November. 



1849. Sept. 10th to 28th. From ten to over twenty examples 



daily : the last bird shot on the 29th of November at 2 

 below freezing-point. 



1859. September. Very many daily, from beginning of month 

 until 20th. 



1868. September 20. A. richardi very frequent since end of 



August ; repeatedly up to as many as fifty examples in 

 one day often from twenty to thirty together. 



Sept. 30. A. richardi still very many. 



Oct. 30. A. richardi still numerous. 



1869. September 15 to 25. A. richardi daily; from ten, twenty, 



to thirty examples. Until end of October, daily, six to 

 eight examples. 



1870. Sept. 21. From the first week of the month, A. richardi, 



many every day. 

 November 23. An old bird, 8 J inches = 203 mm. long. 



1876. September 4. Ten to twelve examples; 6th, twenty and 

 more ; 15th, twenty to thirty. 



These birds must also have been very numerous here in the 

 autumn of 1839 ; at that time I did not possess the least knowledge 

 of birds, but remember sitting, on a fine autumn afternoon about 

 the beginning of October, with Oelrich Aeuckens, the eldest of the 

 three brothers, on a bench on the northern point of the island, 

 and seeing countless numbers of Meadow Pipits, Larks, and other 

 species running about in front of us on a wide grass plain. Aeuckens 

 called my attention to some of them as something out of the com- 

 mon these were Richard's Pipits, and we could see thirteen of 

 them within a distance of fifty paces. There must have been 

 hundreds of these birds on Heligoland on that day. 



On the island of Borkum, fifty-six (geographical) miles from 

 here, Herr von Droste - Hiilshoff ( Vogelwelt der Nordseeinsel 

 Borkum, p. 105) met with this Pipit in 1868, during the months 

 of September and October, on two occasions, in companies of 

 seven individuals, and six times singly, or in twos and threes. 

 In stating, however, that this species does not proceed by steps, 

 like other Pipits, but in hops like a Thrush, the last-named observer 

 has decidedly fallen into an error which will be at once set aside by 

 an examination of the bird's footprints in the sand. Besides observ- 

 ing the birds in numberless instances in the open air, I kept one 



