CORDEAUX: HELIGOLAND. 



hand, a rare immigrant arriving on the Yorkshire coast will probably 

 escape observation altogether, both from the great extent of coast- 

 line and inland cover, as well as the scarcity of competent observers. 



In the autumn of 1874 I visited Heligoland in H.M. cutter 

 * Active,' and was subsequently able, by the assistance of Mr. Gatke, 

 to give some account of the ornithology of the island in a paper which 

 appeared in The Ibis for 1875. This summer (1887) I paid a second 

 visit there, leaving Grimsby on July 19th in the S.S. ' Northenden,' 

 and landing in Hamburg with one hour to spare to catch the Heligo- 

 land boat, the fine new S.S. ' Freia.' The average passage is seven or 

 eight hours, a considerable portion of which is occupied in running 

 down the Elbe. When crossing the North Sea a few Herring Gulls 

 and an occasional Guillemot were observed, and as we neared the 

 Neuwerk. Lighthouse, the first land seen on approaching the Elbe,"' 

 a large flight of Terns collected in our wake, on the look-out for any 

 small morsel of food brought to the surface by the revolutions of the 

 screw or tossed in the creamy eddies slipping away from under the 

 counter. , These Terns were all the so-called Common species y 

 occasionally the crowd was joined by two or three Sandwich Tern, 

 but these latter appeared much less trustful of man and his works^ 

 and kept at some distance. Near the harbour of Cuxhaven I saw 

 some Kittiwakes and two pair of Lesser Terns, also a single Scoter, 

 swimming close to the landing jetty. 



I know no prettier sight on the lower Elbe at this season than to 

 watch the large flights of Tern which, mile after mile, hover in 

 close attendance on the steamboats passing up and down the river. 

 There is a perpetual glance of white fish-shaped bodies, and a flicker 

 of slowly-beating wings, crossing and re-crossing, rising and falling, 

 turning, twisting, or hanging poised — all seem as if intent on thread- 

 ing the mazes of some comphcated aerial dance, yet at the same 

 time making good progress ahead. Sometimes they drift so close 

 that they barely escape a rebuff from the flapping of the big German 

 ensign blown out from the flagstaff at the stern. I can hear their 

 ' kree-krcea ' above the throbs of the engine and the shuddering of 

 the huge paddles, and can see the glitter of the keen hard restless 

 eyes, ever directed downwards to search the tumbling waters racing 

 astern, well able to pick out the smallest atoms of floating matter. 

 Now one, and then another, will swoop like arrows to the surface, 

 or they stoop only part-way, and then as quickly rise, momentarily 



* The Neuwerk is an old square tower on a sandy island of that name, and 

 was originally (so says the (uiide Book) erected in 1290, as a castle to protect the 

 mouth of the river against pirates. Since 1870, the entrance to the Elbe at 

 Cuxhaven has been very strongly fortified with earthworks and heavy guns. 



Naturalist, 



