Birds. 7349 



ap2)roachecl by the boat, it rose very easily, mounted into the air to a 

 great height — as birds do when starling for their migratorial excur- 

 sions — and then struck out steadily in a southern direction, without 

 taking any notice whatever of the island. 



Although 1 believe the foregoing to have proved sufficiently the 

 possibility of birds being capable to cross on the wing from the 

 United States of America to Great Britain, the greatest probability 

 that they do so is still shown by the proportion the number of Ame- 

 rican birds in Great Britain bears to that of those obtained in the 

 whole of Europe. Yarrell, in his 'British Birds,' 1845, mentions 

 more than forty instances of that description ; Tringa rufescens and 

 Scolopax grisea having been obtained six times each ! whereas Ger- 

 many, Holland and France together offer but very few instances, 

 some of which scarcely rest on good authority. 



Heligoland seems to form a happy centre. Here the gulls of the 

 Arctic Sea [Larus Rossii and L. Sahinii) meet the Nunidian crane, 

 Grus Virgo, Lanius phoenicurus, and other African birds ; whilst the 

 United States send Mimus rufus and T. lividus, Sylvicola virens, 

 Charadrius virginicus and others, to meet deputations from the far 

 east of Asia, consisting of Turdus ruficollis and T. varius, Sylvia java- 

 nica, S. caligata and S. certhiola, Emberiza rustica, E. pusilla and 

 E. aureola, Pyrrhula rosea, and a great many others. 



All these birds, together with a great number of acquisitions quite 

 as valuable for the European Ornis, all captured on this island, are 

 preserved in my collection, — a collection which, although scarcely 

 approaching to three hundred specimens, has, by Blasius, been pro- 

 nounced to be " the most interesting between Paris and Petersburg." 



Ornithological Notes from Felixstoiv, on the Essex Coast. — On the 7tb of October, 

 wbile at breakfast, I noticed a number of swallows passing the windows at short inter- 

 vals, not in dense flocks but rather straggling, some over the land and some over the 

 surface of the sea. I soon observed that they were accompanied by a few martins of 

 both species, and that occasional large flocks of short-winged birds passed the windows 

 also, and that all were travelling southward along the line of coast ; not one solitary 

 individual relumed, or was seen moving in the opposite direction. The martins, 

 however, which had nestled under the eaves of our dwelling, did not join them, but 

 continued flitting about as usual. The short-winged birds were too distant to ascer- 

 tain the species, but they were very uumeruus, and in close flocks, as if for mutual 

 protection. The contrast between their feeble, jerking flight, and the easy, gliding 

 motion of the chimney swallows, was very striking. This continued till about 

 10 o'clock A.M., when the migration (for such it undoubtedly was) ceased for that 



