392 Mr. H. Durnford on North-Frisian Ornithology. 
hitherto been published in this country; and, indeed, the only 
contribution to their ornithology I know of is the short paper 
on the birds of Sylt by Pafn, published in 'Naumannia^ for 
1857 (pp. 125-128). Owing to a law which came into opera¬ 
tion this year, no eggs are allowed to be taken (except in a 
few islands, where the people chiefly subsist on them) after 
the 30th April; and there is also a law prohibiting the shoot¬ 
ing of birds on land. Fortunately for us, the first of these 
laws is not as yet very strictly enforced, and we accordingly 
took little notice of it—but were continually advised to be very 
cautious in the matter of taking eggs; we heard that a few 
days previous to our landing on Sylt two men had been fined 
20 dollars (about £3) apiece for taking Herring-Gulls^ eggs 
from the sandhills. Its existence, however, hindered us, in¬ 
asmuch as we did not like to hunt over the land in the more 
populous districts; still we always found ourselves fully em¬ 
ployed wherever we were. I left Hull on the 24th May, and 
had a very stormy passage across to Hamburg, where I met 
my brother, who had come by train from Paris. Off Spurn 
Point I observed a single Sterna nigra amongst a party of S. 
fluviatilis or S. hirundo; about a hundred miles from the 
lighthouse an Anthus pratensis came on board from an easterly 
direction, but much exhausted. When about sixty miles from 
Heligoland another sought the shelter of our boat ; and before 
we reached the island we had four or five on board. They 
were all very tame, and if I had desired I could have caught 
them in my hands. We passed within about five miles of 
Pleligoland ; and when near the island they all left us, flying 
in its direction. Just off the mouth of the Elbe a fine pair 
of Anas acuta flew in a north-easterly direction close over our 
boat. Amongst the scanty vegetation on the banks of the 
river I observed JFgialitis minor to be numerous, but saw none 
elsewhere. 
The country from Hamburg to Husum is flat and uninter¬ 
esting ) but we passed over some extensive boggy heaths con¬ 
taining very inviting-looking spots for Plovers, Snipes, &c. 
We saw a few pairs of Tringaides hypoleucus near the pools 
of water formed in the holes whence peat had been dug, and 
