THE HOoDED CRow. 167 
gration of Hoodies from the 12th to the 30th of October, Messrs. T. H. Nelson, 
and F. Pilling observe:—‘‘ The Hoodies are generally noticed in largest numbers 
during thick weather in October and November.” According to Seebohm this 
species migrates by day, and Giatke says:—‘‘In the autumn, and with favourable 
weather, the migration commences at about eight o’clock in the morning, with 
flocks of from fifty to one hundred individuals; the movement soon passes into a 
stream of flocks, consisting of from a hundred to at least five hundred examples, 
and continues in this manner, without gaps of any kind, until two o’clock in the 
afternoon. We can scarcely, in a case of this kind, assume that we are dealing 
with a stream or route of migration which just chances to cross Heligoland, for 
the movement proceeds in equal magnitude from east to west as far as the eye 
can reach. More than this, on days when powerful migrations of this kind take 
place, the migration-front or column has been seen from boats eight miles north 
of the island to stretch farther to the north, as far as the limits of vision extend ; 
while on the south it reached, simultaneously and in equal magnitude, up the 
Weser, at least as far as Bremerhaven, as was determined from the steamer which 
regularly plies between this island and the latter place. We thus get a migration 
column of at least thirty-six geographical miles in breadth.” 
Herr Gatke proceeds to make many other observations of considerable interest, 
which it would be well worth our readers’ while to peruse, but for which we 
cannot find space here; nevertheless, his concluding paragraphs are, we consider, 
important; as showing how little the agency of man can affect the extinction of 
species, so far as it is directed merely against birds, their nests and eggs :— 
‘Finally, I would add one further remark, as regards the position of these Crows 
in the economy of nature. Everywhere the protection of birds creates the greatest 
interest, and man is always put in the foreground as the greatest enemy of the 
feathered creation. Now, although the destruction of song-birds and other small 
species, as it appears to be carried on in Italy, ought to be resisted by all possible 
means; nevertheless all that is offered for sale, in the way of eggs and small 
birds, in Italy during one complete migration period, would scarcely equal the 
quantity of eggs and nestlings destroyed by the Hooded Crows during one single 
summer day. 
“It is perhaps true that the number of individuals of Hooded Crows becomes 
nowhere apparent in such preponderating quantity as in Heligoland, in consequence 
of which their destructive influence is under-estimated; but if one had the oppor- 
tunity of seeing the hosts of them which travel past during two months of 
autumn, in uninterrupted sequence, and return in the spring, as is the case here, 
where no tree, wood, or hill, impedes the view; and if one at the same time 
