THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 471 



rest or food, we should, judging from the above-mentioned distances, 

 get a speed of flight of from one hundred and eighty-four to two 

 hundred and sixteen miles per hour ; and even if one assumed 

 that a bird could continue flying uninterruptedly for twenty hours, 

 which, however, seems to exceed the range of possibility, there 

 would result, in the case of the flocks which have migrated to 

 Brazil, a velocity of flight of more than one hundred and sixty 

 miles per hour. We have, moreover, already obtained a result of 

 one hundred and eighty miles per hour in the case of the spring 

 passage of the Northern Bluethroat from north Africa to Heligo- 

 land. In regard to bird-flight generally, as weh 1 as the capacities 

 for flight of different species, we are, however, still completely 

 in the dark. 



268. Grey Plover [KIBITZ-REGENPFEIFER]. 

 CHARADRIUS SQUATAROLA, Naumann. 1 



Heligolandish : Witt Welster= White Golden Plover. 

 Charadriiis sqiiatarola. Naumann, vii. 249. 

 Grey Plover. Dresser, vii. 455. 



Vanneau pluvier. Temminck, Manuel, ii. 547, iv. 359. 



For beauty and distinguished appearance, an old bird of this 

 species, in the fresh and perfect breeding dress, stands, without 

 question, in the first rank among our avifauna. The two simple 

 colours of its plumage snowy white, and deep glossy black are 

 distributed with an elegance, the like of which is not attained, 

 much less surpassed, or indeed capable of being surpassed, in any 

 other avian genus. It is, however, but rarely hardly once in three 

 or four years that one is able to obtain the bird in such perfection 

 on this island; for although it occurs frequently every summer 

 during the latter half of May and in the beginning of June, it is 

 extremely cautious, and but rarely allows itself to be lured within 

 shooting range by the bird-call 2 of a gunner. In fine clear weather 

 solitary individuals may be seen migrating on an eastwardly 

 course at great altitudes, occasionally giving utterance to a loud 

 and clear 'ku-u-luh,' as with tremendous speed they hasten to 

 their distant home. Solitary young autumn birds are met with 

 at the end of the summer on the shore of the dunes; but 

 these are, for the most part very shy, and invariably cause the 

 flocks cf Tringse with which they keep company to seek safety 

 in timely flight. Old birds pass on their migration later in 

 autumn; they remain, however, unseen, inasmuch as they travel 

 over and past the island only by night. Judging from their 



1 Squatarola helvetica (Linn.). 2 Lockpfeife = Decoy pipe, or whistle. 



