CORDKAUX : HELIGOLAND. 



7 



and scarcely ever do they resort to .V. caprea^ of whicli there are also 

 some specimens in my garden. 



'lo the left of the high pole, in the view without the house, one 

 day an JLviheriza ritstica perched from three to four feet above my 

 liead ; a little further on, near the thin stick, where the white spots 

 are, I caught that beautiful male of E. pythiornis you saw in my 

 collection. 'I'hen, in the middle of the topmost branches, which are 

 a little lower than those further to the right, Mr. Seebohm shot his 

 P.superciliosus^ and over the whole frame from left to right I have seen 

 at least half a score more of these little darlings. The only time 

 I heard its tiny call-note repeated more than once in short succession 

 was one day when I came on a sudden on one so close that I actually 

 made a grip at it with my hand and thereby frightened it out of its 

 small wits. Further to the extreme right of the highest willow, 

 Turdits varius and T. fuscatus have been caught. Einberizci nielano- 

 cepliala I have repeatedly shot with my walking-stick gun ; the little 

 English Redpole, Linota rufescens^ as also Z. exilipes^ with spotless 

 white rump and with a little bill. Emberi?:a luteola I met six to 

 eight paces behind the spot where I caught E. p)yt]iiornis. Just a little 

 further to the right, where the photograph ends, my son shot Phyllos- 

 copus nitidiis^ and I rejjorted E. inelanocephala^ Sturnns roseus^ 

 JVtylloscopus iristis. Was once within arm's length of Sylvia fuscata 

 through the dried-up planking dividing my garden from my neigh- 

 bour's. In the bushes underneath the flag of the other photograph 

 1 shot with walking-stick gun, Fhylloscopus viridcmus ; saw ever so 

 many superciliosus, several tristis — so well known by its call-note, 

 resembling the cry of a very young chicken repeated four or five 

 times in quick succession ; Sylvia vielanocephala^ several Sturmis 

 roseus,^ etc., etc. 



The oldest tree on the island is a mulberry, so old that its aged 

 limbs are supported with iron clamps and traces. This is in a garden 

 near the church. Trees are fairly abundant both in the upper and 

 lower town, those best suited to the sea-breezes and soil being the 

 sycamore, elm, lime, pear, and cherry. The elm trees which flank 

 the wooden staircase, also some trees in the garden of the Con- 

 vensation House, may be fairly called timber; besides these there is an 

 abundance of elder, thorn, lilac, syringa, willow, and the ' tea '-shrub. 

 The gardens attached to the pleasant and clean-looking houses are 

 bright with roses, petunias, splendid stocks, sweet-williams, and 

 J' rench \'alerian ; the latter attracts numbers of migratory moths. 



The upper town ends somewhat abruptly, and beyond this the 

 island is an open elevated common, wind-swept and without tree or 

 bush, forming a long and narrow triangle, flanked by cliffs 200 feet 



Jan. 1888. 



