164 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



BIRD MIGRATION AT HELIGOLAND. 

 By H. Gatke. 



The February number of the 'Zoologist' (pp.71 — 73) contains 

 an article by Mr. Seebohm, in which, though it is directed against 

 Mr. Cordeaux, I am accused of inaccuracy and ignorance 

 respecting the birds that have passed through my hands, either 

 alive or recently killed on Heligoland, during the last fifty-five 

 years. In the first instance, Mr. Seebohm maintains that " very 

 many " of the species of a list of accidental visitors furnished 

 by me to Mr. Cordeaux are in reality " regular autumn visitors 

 on migration to Heligoland," and, in substantiation of his 

 assertion, Mr. Seebohm names, out of the " very many," but four 

 instances, viz., the Shore Lark, Alauda alpestris ; Richard's 

 Pipit, Anihus Richardi; the Rustic Bunting and Little Bunting, 

 Emberiza rustica and E. pusilla. I doubt whether Mr. Seebohm 

 has been very lucky in his choice, for if he had taken the trouble 

 to acquaint himself with what I have very explicitly said 

 (' Vogelwarte Helgoland,' p. 375) respecting the migratory move- 

 ments of Alauda alpestris, he would have found that not only am 

 I very far from considering this bird an accidental visitor to 

 Western Europe, but, on the contrary, I endeavoured to prove 

 that its winter-quarters must of necessity be looked for in certain 

 localities of France and Spain. 



Widely different stands the case with Anthus Richardi, a 

 native of the far east of Asia, from Lake Baikal to the Sea of 

 Ochotzk ; its regular line of autumnal migration runs south, and 

 it consequently is a common winter resident in South China and 

 the eastern parts of India, Bengal for instance, being in Calcutta 

 a plentiful market bird during the winter months. Such indivi- 

 duals, therefore, as under exceptional and undoubtedly meteor- 

 ological influences adopt at irregular periods — though in rare 

 instances in comparatively considerable numbers — a western 

 instead of their normal southern autumnal migration flight, can 

 reasonably be pronounced only accidental visitors to Europe, — 

 the more so since even the cases of appearance in greater num- 

 bers of this Pipit have occurred mostly at intervals of from six 

 to ten years, viz., in 1839, '48, '49, '59, '68, '69, '70, and '76. 

 On account of prevailing westerly winds, Anthus Richardi has, 



