The season for catching is concluded about the end of the
third week in September! after which very few birds are observed
to pass. Stragglers are occasionally seen later in the
year. Mr. Sweet “ observed a pair on the 17th of November
1822, near the gravel-pit in Hyde Park, which were
quite lively, and flying about after insects as brisk as if it
had been the middle of summer.’'’
The diffusion of the Wheatear during summer over England,
Wales, Ireland, and Scotland is general; it visits also
the Hebrides, and the islands of Orkney and Shetland. It
arrives in Denmark and Sweden about the middle of April;
Mr. Hewitson saw numbers in Norway; and Linneus observed
it in Lapland. The extreme northern range of this
apparently delicate bird is very extensive. It visits the
Faroe Islands and Iceland. Captain Sabine, in his Memoir
on the Birds of Greenland, says, “ This species was not seen
on the shores of Greenland, on which we landed ; but on our
return homewards in October 1818, off Cape Farewell, a few
were seen at a distance from the land, doubtless on their
passage southward. In our outward voyage, in May, we also
met with them in latitude 60° N. and longitude 18° W.,
then most probably migrating northward.” In high latitudes,
this little bird does not breed till June ; and it has
been seen on the shores of Greenland by Fabricius and
others. Captain James Ross, in the Natural History appended
to the narrative of the last Voyage to the Arctic
Regions, says of the Wheatear, One of these little birds
was observed flying round the ship in Felix Harbour, 70° N.
91° 53' W., on the 2nd of May 1880, and was found dead
alongside the next morning: having arrived before the ground
was sufficiently uncovered to enable it to procure its food, it
had perished from want. It is the only instance of this bird
having been met with in Arctic America, in the course of our
several expeditions to those regions.”
The Wheatear is abundant on the European Continent,
and very numerous on the northern shores of the Mediterranean
in spring, and again in autumn. M. Temminck says it
is found in Dalmatia and the Morea; Mr. Strickland observed
it at Smyrna in April; and the Zoological Society
have received specimens from Keith Abbott, Esq., obtained
at Trebizond, lat. 40° 45' N., long. 40° 25' E., the most eastern
locality, as far as I am aware, that has yet been quoted
for this species.
The adult male in the breeding season has the beak, the
space between the beak and the eye, a small line under the
eye, and the ear-coverts, black ; the irides dark brown; the
space above the base of the beak, a narrow line over the eye,
and a small space above the ear-coverts, white; the head,
back, and scapulars, of a fine light grey; wing-coverts and
quill-feathers almost black : upper tail-coverts white ; the two
middle tail-feathers, with the proximal third, white,— the
distal two-thirds black; all the other tail-feathers have the
proximal two-thirds white, the distal one-third black : chin
and throat buff colour; belly, flanks, vent, and under tail-
coverts, pale buffy white ; legs, toes, and claws, black.
The whole length of the adult bird is six inches and a
half. From the carpal joint to the end of the longest quill-
feather, three inches and seven-eighths : the first feather very
short; the second as long as the fifth ; the third and fourth
equal in length, and the longest in the wing.
In the adult female, during the breeding season, the ear-
coverts are dark brown ; the grey of the back and the buff of
the under surface of the body are each clouded with brown.
Immediately after the breeding season the annual moulting
takes place, and the plumage of old and young is then very
similar : the beak and the colours of the cheeks are much
the same as before, but the top of the head, back, and scapulars
are reddish brown, slightly tinged with grey ; each