22 THE OENITHOLOGIST. 



many of which come in from the sea or shoot down from the 

 clouds, but in either case make land hereabouts. 



Headers of the veteran Herr Gatke's " Heligoland," recently 

 translated into English, and edited by Mr. Harvie-Brown, 

 will observe the importance which is attached at that orni- 

 thological observatory by the author to wind in its bearing 

 on migration, especially in the 5th chapter, " On Meteoro- 

 logical Conditions which influence Migration." He sums up 

 the result of continued personal observation by saying : — 

 " Whereas birds appear in great number when the wind is in 

 a particular direction, they are scarcely seen at all when it is 

 in some other quarter" (p. 74). The particular direction 

 which suits the Island of Heligoland may not by any means 

 be the one which brings them to Norfolk, which, according 

 to my observations, is a gentle wind from the west. The 

 number of remarkable migrations to Norfolk and the east 

 coast of England generally, which have had no ascertained 

 simultaneous counterpart in Heligoland, is very large indeed ; 

 therefore it must be borne in mind that there is not that simi- 

 larity between the two places which some have supposed. In 

 the same way there have been many migrations to Heligoland 

 which could not be correlated with any in England. For in- 

 stance in October, 1870, there were thousands of the Great Tit 

 (Parus major) in Heligoland ; in 1874 enormous numbers of 

 Shore-Larks (Otocorys alpestris) ; in 1876 tens of thousands 

 of Sky-Larks {Alauda arve?isis) ; in 1879 Ked-throated Divers 

 (Colymbus septentrionalis) almost by the million ; in 1880 

 countless numbers of the Pied Flycatcher (Muscicapa atri- 

 capilla) ; but none of these hosts, so far as was observed, 

 came to England. Other writers besides Herr Gatke have 

 insisted on the importance of wind in its relation to migration. 

 By Mr. John Cordeaux its influence was recognised years ago. 

 Writing from the Humber-mouth in 1881, he laid down as an 

 axiom that, " with southerly or westerly winds, not amounting 

 to gales, normal migration (to the east coast in autumn) is the 

 rule, but with winds in the opposite direction the results are 

 very opposite " (" Third Report on the Migration of Birds," 

 p. 39). In 1883 he writes of "the prevailing winds in the 

 autumn, westerly and south-westerly — such as we know are 



