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This is a most charming book, and should be read by all lovers of 

 ■birds. The first chapter is devoted to the course of migration 

 throughout the year, beginning with the guillemots, whioh visit 

 their breeding jjlaces in thousands at the new year, and skylarks 

 and starlings in the middle of January and going through a 

 crescendo movement until May, when fortissimo is reached, followed 

 by the diminuendo of June, and again crescendo of July, August, 

 and September to the fortissimo of October, diminishing again 

 then to the end of the year. In describing the movements in the 

 month of May, after enumerating several species, he writes — '* If 

 towards the end of May the weather be specially favourable, most 

 of the above-named species pour in in incalculable numbers ; 

 during the hours of night this great host of wanderers sweeps 

 across and past the island without taking rest thereon— some of 

 the birds travelling singly, others in smaller or larger groups 

 according to the nature of the species — all striving to gain their 

 far off homes. After sunrise, however, and during the early hours 

 of the forenoon, thousands and tens of thousands of these birds 

 break their journey ; some too at sunset, in order to make a few 

 hours' stay on our island. It is, however, absolutely impossible to 

 ascertain the manner and method of arrival of most of these 

 visitors, even by the most careful observation ; this is specially the 

 case with the small song birds and similar species, whose number 

 increases with each minute, without one being able to see a single 

 bird descending from on high, or shaping its course in any one 

 particular direction. Many alight on the fields while it is still dark^ 

 and are present in their thousands by the time it has become day- 

 light ; some, on the other hand, e.g. the bluethroats, arrive shortly 

 before sunrise ; others, like the whin and stonechats, arrive only 

 after day has fully begun ; from this time onward their number 

 increases steadily, and in so striking a manner, that by ten a.m. 

 all the pastures, fields, and gardens, and even the rubble at the 

 foot of the cliff, literally teem with blue-headed, black-headed, and 

 yellow wagtails, redstarts, cbats, wheatears, whin and stonechats, 

 bluethroats, warblers, and reed warblers. The common wheatear 

 is specially numerous on the shingle at the foot of the cliff, and 

 thousands of birds, notably warblers, lurk among the shrubs, and 

 sand lyme grass on the Dune " (a small island close to Heligoland.) 

 As to October, " Throughout the whole of the month, hooded 

 crows travel in never ending swarms of hundreds and thousands 

 across the island, and for a breadth of many miles, pass both its 

 coasts ; cloud-like masses of starlings pass at the same time. At 

 the beginning of the month, if the weather is favourable, the 

 island literally teems with song thrushes, especially during the 

 morning hours. The number of skylarks passing during dark 



