THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 487 



on each side an additional wide-meshed outer covering through 

 which a Woodcock is able to fly comfortably. The object of this 

 arrangement is to prevent birds, which have once been captured, 

 from escaping again immediately afterwards ; but even this pre- 

 caution proves insufficient if one does not strike the net as soon 

 as possible after a catch. Moreover, for species of the size of the 

 Yellow Wagtails and the Bluethroats, mentioned by Naumann in 

 this connection, these nets are far too wide-meshed, leaving out of 

 consideration that neither of these species flies during the night, 

 and, least of all, low among the houses. I have dwelt intentionally 

 at some length on this subject, because, for some years now, it 

 has been the fashion in Protectionist quarters to represent Heli- 

 goland as the great slaughter-house of birds ; and statements have 

 from the same sources found their way into public journals, to 

 the effect that from 60,000 to 70,000 birds were butchered here 

 in the course of a month. 



To the Woodcocks arriving at night or early dawn the resting- 

 places which they are obliged to resort to on this island must 

 indeed seem wonderfully strange : used to passing their life in 

 shady woods, it need perhaps hardly surprise us that they 

 should select as the nearest substitute for their former haunts the 

 dark grottoes and crevices which the rocky cliff of this island 

 provides in such abundance. Such places are, however, by no 

 means their only resorts ; for not only does one meet with them 

 on the perfectly level plain of the Upper Plateau, and among the 

 shingle at the foot of the cliff, but they will even settle on 

 extremely narrow, often much sloping, projections of rock at all 

 heights along the face of the cliff, whence not a few are frequently 

 shot from above. I would here relate an incident which once 

 happened to one of our gunners. This man, who in other re- 

 spects could not be regarded as more than an average shot, 

 happening to climb over a high talus of rock at the foot of 

 the cliff, espied, on a narrow projection which sloped somewhat 

 backwards, the head of a Woodcock; climbing to a somewhat 

 higher point of the rock in order to get a safe shot, he dis- 

 covered a second bird close to the first. He thereupon fired, and 

 seeing neither of the birds rise, felt not a little pleased at having 

 killed the two. Imagine, however, his joy and astonishment when, 

 on reaching his spoil after some trouble, he found that he had 

 killed not two, but four, Woodcocks at one shot, all of these birds 

 having been sitting close together on one small spot. 



In spring it has repeatedly occurred that two Woodcocks have 

 been killed in a furrow with one shot ; and I have once at the same 

 season found two sitting close together under the net of my 



