SAXICOLA CENANTHE.
Wheatear.
Motacilla omanthe, Lina. Faun. Suec., p. 93.
Sylvia omanthe, Lath. Ind. Ora. voL ii. p. 529.
Motacilla mtiflora, Pall. Zoogr. Ross.-Asiat., tom. i. p. 472.
Saxtcola omanthe, Bechst. Ora. Taschenb., tom. i. p. 217.
Vitiliflora amaritke, Leach, Syst. Cat. of indig. Marara. and Birds in Brit. Mus., p. 21
T h e natural abodes of the present bird are open downs, warrens, eo&mons, heaths, and moorlands; the
more sterile and stony the better are they adapted to its wants. Neither is any situation too solitary for i t ;
the most chaotic gorge, the rocky mountain tarn, the wildest moorland, where sheep cannot live and the
Blue Hare can scarcely exist, are among the favourite places o f its resort. If yon ascend a glen in the High*
lands from the sea-shore to its upper limits, the Wheatear is sure to be one of the few birds which greet
you a t every turn in the valley, and may be seen on every stouy projection livelily flirting its tail and showing
the conspicuous patch of white on its rump as it flits bohbiugly from stone to stone o r rock to rock.
The Wheatear is a truly migratory species; for it quits the hot plains o f Africa In the early spring and
distributes itself during the mouths o f summer over all suitable parts o f Europe, our own islands, and
Iceland, some few even proceeding still further north, as will be seen in the sequel. My son, Dr. Franklin
Gould, who noted it on its spring passage a t San Remo, writes under date of February 23, 1868, “ the
Wheatear has appeared to d ay for the first time.” it comes to England early in March, and any day in the
latter end of that month it may he seen on the downs around Brighton, Beachy Head, and other parts of
Sussex ; and soon afterwards the move central parts of England, the Wold, o f Yorkshire, the bills o f Derby,
shire, and every suitable locality from Cornwall to Cape Wrath arc enlivened with it. presence; some
remain to breed and spend the .«turner hen-, while others proceed further north to more inhospitable and
barren countries. One was nWr-.ed hv Captain .luuie» Ross, (lying round his ship in Felix Harbour, /O’ N„
91*581 W , on the 2nd ol May, 1836;. and «pectinon« were hfought to me by the Arctic traveller Dr. Rae,
to prove that tin.- Whwtew restSv visit.: the northern p art, a f the American continent, in ptom-ding to
which they had pruhabJv pmacd t British Mwj»«!*.
Summer having passed away, and the Wheatear reared its young and moulted info its winter garb, the
whole gradually proceed southward preparatory to their flight across live ocean to Spain, and thence over
the Mediterranean to Morocco and other parts of the African continent, where they winter among the desert
j. plains of that hot country, and return again to us when the sen. in hi« daily progress towards the north,
has prepared our islands for their reception.
During the Autumnal migration of the Wheatear, when both tdd and young assemble on the Sussex downs
"£>rior to their*departure, vast numbers are captured for the delectation o f the wealthy epicure. From time
¿immemorial, when Brighton was a mere fifhing-village, and Hastings a mere hamlet, the Wheatear has
!>een captured and sold for the purposes o f the table. The bird, however, is now less plentiful than it was
- formerly, and the supply certainly does not keep pace with the demand; it is only a favoured few, therefore,
-jvho can now regale on autumnal Wheatears. On this head Yarrell says:—“ The extensive downs between
'Eastbourne and Beachy Head are visited by the Wheatear from the end of July to the middle of September,
by hundreds daily. Other portions of the downs along the southern coast have their share o f these
migrants; and as they are then fat and of good flavour, it is customary to drew them by thnten* at the inns
o f the numerous watering-places on the Sussex coast. The birds are supplied in profuakm by the shepherds,
who form numerous traps for them in the tu rf of the downs over which their dock* and rustic graze. The
trap is formed by cutting an oblong piece id turf fruui the surface, about eleven inches bv eight, and six
inches thick, taking it up in a solid mat», and Saying it the contrary way both as to surface and direction
over the hole, thus forming a hollow ehamlwr henenrh it. Besides this chamber two other openings are cut
in the turf, about six inches wide, and of greater length, which lead into the chamber at opposite ends, that
the bird may run in under the turf through rtf her of them. A small straight stick, sharpened at both end»,
not very unlike the old-fashioned brimstone-tipped match, but stouter, is fixed in an upright position -• Kttfr
on one side o f the square chamber; this stick support* two open loops of twisted horse-hatr placed verticaih
across the Hue of passage from either entrance to fW opposite o u tle t; and the bird, attempting to run
through, is almost certain to get hi» head .wr of these loops and he (.-(Might by the oeck ,*. upon rhc
least alarm, even the shadow o f a passing eb»ud, the Hod* > mii beneath the clod and are taken.
‘‘ However inefficient this trap may appear to be, the of the shepherds is gerut- f t ; - recorded in