THE ZOOLOGIST 



No. 226.— October, 1895, 



THE ORNITHOLOGIST IN HELIGOLAND. 



Some fifty years ago a young German artist, wishing to take 

 up marine painting as a profession, fixed upon Heligoland as the 

 most fitting place for a studio, and liked it so well that he has 

 remained there ever since. He was induced to select that island 

 for his pied a terre, not only on account of its position in mid- 

 ocean, which would afford ever-changing views of sea and sky, 

 but because it offered at the same time unusual facilities for 

 observing a great variety of birds which temporarily rest there in 

 the course of their migrations. 



The observations, which he at first made for amusement, 

 became so fascinating, that they developed into a course of serious 

 study. Careful notes were taken of the different species of birds 

 which alighted on the island, the dates of their arrival, the 

 direction of the wind, and the condition of the weather at the 

 time, with other particulars of great interest to naturalists, such 

 as the separation of old and young birds on migration, the 

 direction of their flight, and the altitude and speed with which 

 they travel. The patient collection of such statistics for a period 

 of nearly fifty years at length placed Herr Gatke in possession of 

 such a mass of accumulated facts that it seemed imperative on 

 him to publish at least the general results, if not the complete 

 details, of such extended observations. Scientific ornithologists 

 in all parts of the world gradually became aware of the nature of 

 his studies, and pressed him for information. Some of them even 

 visited him in his island home, and under his guidance became 

 eye-witnesses of bird-migration on a scale which, judging only 



ZOOLOGIST, THIRD SERIES, VOL. XIX. OCT. 1895. 2 F 



