Edinburgh.)—This volume suggests another reason for thinking that we made
an improvident bargain in surrendering Heligo- land. Herr Gatke, a native of the Mark of Brandenburg, settled
more than half a century ago in Heligoland, intending to pursue the work of a marine painter. Circumstances led him to study the habits of birds ; and his experience is that the island is, "from an ornithological point of view, literally without a rival in the world," presenting "an undreamt-of wealth of material value to Science." It is the migration of birds, for which Heligoland affords unrivalled facilities of observation, that gives it this pre-eminence. To migrants, accordingly, Herr Mae gives a considerable portion of his volume. It is this, indeed, the result of long-continued and most diligent observation, that gives it its chief value. The following section discusses " Changes in the Colour of the Plumage without Moulting," and finally we have a descriptive catalogue of the birds that have hitherto been observed in Heligoland. These number three hun- dred and ninety-eight. the last added to the list being the great- bustard, a female of this kind having been killed on April 18th in this year.
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