376 THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 



of the same species ; also shot one E. rustica, but not the same one 

 as was seen on the day before. In the example shot the feet were 

 perfectly clean, a sign by which Heligolanders are able to tell whether 

 a bird has arrived the same morning or the day before, the feet being 

 in the former case clean ; in the latter, coloured red by the soil. An 

 E. pusilla was seen on the 29th, another on the 30th, and again one 

 on the 1st October. On the 8th an E. pusilla, two or three E. 

 rustica, one Anthus cervinus, and one Sylvia proregulus (Glaus 

 Aeuckens) ; on the 9th, one E. rustica ; on the 10th, one E. pusilla, 

 this bird, judging from the soles of its feet, having been here 

 also" on the previous day. One E. rustica was seen but not 

 secured ; on the 14th, two Sylvia superciliosa one a fine male 

 shot by my son Ludwig. On the 24th, Fringilla hornemanni, a 

 young male. Besides the species named, many examples of Anthus 

 richardi, and hundreds of thousands of Alauda alpestris, were 

 observed. 



One feels inclined to ponder as to how many other equally 

 interesting rarities from Siberia may not have visited Heligoland 

 at the same time, without having come under observation, and how 

 large a number of them must have passed through northern and 

 central Germany on the way to their winter quarters in western 

 Europe. Among these, the Little Bunting especially would have 

 escaped observation, being a quiet ground dweller not easily scared, 

 and seeking its food among field-plants and along high grass borders, 

 where it may frequently be approached to within ten paces or less 

 before it will take flight. It utters its call-note only while on the 

 wing ; this is a very feeble cry, hardly like that of a Bunting, but yet 

 audible at a considerable distance ; it is very high in tone, somewhat 

 resembling the sound produced by striking a tensely-stretched thin 

 steel wire with the point of the nail. 



Though this bird in the general coloration of its plumage bears 

 a strong resemblance to other closely-allied species, it cannot by 

 any means easily be confounded with them. From young Reed 

 Buntings (E. scho&niclus] it is distinguished both by its much smaller 

 size, and also more especially by the absence of the vivid ferru- 

 ginous colour of the small outer wing-coverts, which in all the 

 different stages of the plumage in E. pusilla are of a pale earthy grey ; 

 its shorter tail, too, serves to distinguish it even at some distance ; 

 nor does it, as it runs along, jerk this organ either so frequently or 

 in such striking manner as E. schwnidus. There is equally little 

 chance of confounding it with young autumn birds or hen birds of 

 E. pallasi, for in such birds the ground-colour of the feathers 

 of the upper portion and sides of the breast is of a more or less 

 rich isabelline rust-colour (isabell rostfarben), and the pale rust- 



