160 Mr. H. Seebohm on the Ornithology of Heligoland . 
house. As I crossed the potatoe-fields birds were continually 
getting up at my feet. Arrived at the lighthouse, an in¬ 
tensely interesting sight presented itself. The whole of the 
zone of light within range of the mirrors was alive with birds 
coming and going. Nothing else was visible in the darkness 
of the night but the lantern of the lighthouse vignetted in 
a drifting sea of birds. From the eastern darkness clouds of 
birds were continually emerging in an uninterrupted stream ; 
a few swerved from their course, fluttered for a moment as 
if dazzled by the light, and then gradually vanished with the 
rest in the western gloom. Occasionally a bird wheeled 
round the lighthouse and then passed on; and occasionally 
one fluttered against the glass, like a moth against a lamp, 
tried to perch on the wire netting, and was caught by the 
lighthouse-man. I should be afraid to hazard a guess as to 
the hundreds of thousands that must have passed in a couple 
of hours; but the stray birds that the lighthouse-man suc¬ 
ceeded in securing amounted to nearly three hundred. The 
scene from the balcony of the lighthouse was equally inter¬ 
esting. In every direction birds were flying like a swarm of 
bees, and every few seconds one flew against the glass. All 
the birds seemed to be flying up wind; and it was only on the 
lee side of the light that any birds^ were caught. They were 
nearly all Skylarks. In the heap captured was one Redstart and 
one Reed- Bunting. The air was filled with the warbling cry of 
the Larks; now and then a Thrush was heard; and once a 
Heron screamed as it passed by. The night was starless, and 
the town was invisible; but the island looked like the out¬ 
skirts of a gas-lighted town, being sprinkled over with bril¬ 
liant lanterns. Many of the Larks alighted on the ground 
to rest, and allowed the Heligolanders to pass their nets over 
them. About 3 o^clock a.m. a heavy thunder-storm came on, 
with deluges of rain; a few breaks in the clouds revealed the 
stars; and the migration came to an end, or continued above 
the range of our vision. 
But interesting as field-work was on Heligoland, cabinet¬ 
work in Mr. Gaetke^s studio was still more so. There is pro¬ 
bably no more interesting local collection in the world. Mr. 
