196 THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS 



island of Heligoland. Soon after my return from the 

 valley of the Petchora, Mr. Gatke, the celebrated orni- 

 thologist and artist, who resided for so many years 

 on Heligoland, invited me to visit the island, to renew 

 the acquaintance of the grey plover, the Little stint, the 

 blue-throat, the shore-lark, the little bunting, and others 

 of my Petchora friends, and to see something of the 

 wonderful stream of migration which sets in every autumn 

 from the Arctic regions to the sunny South, and flows 

 abundantly past the island. Heligoland is a very small 

 place, probably not much more than a hundred acres in 

 extent. It is an isolated triangular table of red sand- 

 stone, with perpendicular cliffs two or three hundred feet 

 in height, dropping into a sea so shallow, that at low water 

 you can scramble round the island at the foot of the cliffs. 

 Most of the surface of this rock is covered with rich soil 

 and grass. About a mile from the island is a sandbank, 

 the highest portion covered over with esparto grass, and 

 the lower portions submerged by the sea at high tide, 

 reducing the island from perhaps fifty acres to twenty- 

 five. The resident birds on Heligoland and Sandy 

 Island probably do not exceed a dozen species ; but in 

 spring and autumn the number of birds that use these 

 islands as a resting-place during migration is so large, 

 that as many as 15,000 larks have been known to have 

 been caught there in one night, and the number of species 

 of birds obtained on these two small plots of land equals, 

 if it does not exceed, that of any country of Europe. 

 There are several species of Siberian and American birds 

 which have never been obtained in any part of Europe 

 except upon the island of Heligoland. The list of 

 Heligoland birds is so varied, that many ornithologists 

 have doubted its accuracy. No one can visit the island, 

 however, without being convinced of the bona fides of all 



