504 THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 



occur in sufficient frequency to be well known to everybody. 

 Young birds of the year, on the other hand, having the feathers of 

 the back streaked with black or dark brown, are among the 

 commonest of all the birds frequenting the shore of the dune 

 from the end of July to the end of September. Old birds 

 in pure winter plumage become less frequent in late autumn 

 and during the winter months, though the confusion of sounds 

 due to their calls, heard on all migration nights from October to 

 March, gives evidence of the enormous flights of these birds which 

 at this season cross and pass the island on their migratory 

 passage. 



Flocks of these birds, hurrying past this island in restless 

 flight during the evenings and nights of December and January, 

 invariably indicate the advent of wintry weather, with snow and 

 severe frost, on the following day. Larks arrive almost at the 

 same time, followed after a few hours by Golden Plovers, Lapwings, 

 Curlews and Oystercatchers, all the birds manifesting the greatest 

 haste as they dash past the island from east to west. 



The breeding zone of this species extends from the Hebrides 

 eastwards through the whole of northern Europe and Asia, as well 

 as through North America. Middendorff met with it on the 

 Taimyr as far north as 74 N. lat. ; and, according to Benzon and 

 Rohweder, its nesting stations extend to Denmark and Sleswick- 

 Holstein. 



Tringa Schinsii (Brehm). Naumann, vii. 221. 



Naumann had already described this smaller form as a dis- 

 tinct species. In regard to its occurrence on this island, all I 

 can say is that I have repeatedly obtained very small individuals, 

 with the ferruginous colour strongly predominating in the feathers 

 of the back generally, and, in the case of the scapulars, even quite 

 supplanting their darker markings. In such individuals the black 

 colour of the breast was also much less developed. These small 

 birds are not met with on the dune by the seashore, which is 

 almost exclusively the resort of the larger forms, but are only 

 found on a small piece of water in a grassy depression on the 

 Upper Plateau. 



