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348 SYI.Vl ID/K.
by the end of September, and from some parts of it at least
a month earlier, but stragglers occasionally remain a little
longer, and Sweet has recorded his observation of a pair in
Hyde Park, November 17tli, 1822.
In reference to its arrival in spring, the late Mr. Jonathan
Couch remarks that in Cornwall “ the Wheatear reaches our
coast so early in the morning as to prove that it must have
taken flight from the French coast long before daybreak.
Few come after nine o’clock in the morning, and none after
twelve. They sometimes perch on our fisliing-boats, at two
or three leagues from land, in an almost exhausted state.
They do not cross the Channel every day ; and as it usually
happens that our own residents are not the first to arrive, it
is common for them to abound in a morning; but in the
afternoon, and for a day or two after, for not one to be seen.”
This observer does not think that the cock-birds precede the
hens, as has generally been remarked of this and other migratory
species, but he was, perhaps, misled by the fact that
the Wheatear on reaching this country, has often not put off
its winter-dress, which, as will presently be explained, is
very similar in either sex.
These birds, arriving in numbers along the whole line of
our southern and eastern coasts, soon disperse themselves
over the downs, warrens and fallow lands, some of them
seeking for a time very high northern latitudes, to be hereafter
enumerated. They feed on grubs and various insects,
some of which are taken on the wing, the bird returning to
its former position on the turf or the top of a stone, but
seldom alighting on a bush or twig. The lively gesticulations,
no less than the delicate colouring of this bird, make
it a welcome denizen of what remains to us of open country
in England*.
The Wheatear begins to make its nest in the southern
* If the old saying “ No May without a Wheatear” refers, as has been
thought, to the bird, it is without point, for we have the bird with us every
year from March to September. On the other hand, the wheat-plant no doubt
comes into ear in the month of May, especially according to the Old Style of
reckoning, sufficiently often to give rise to the adage.
WHEATEAR. 349
parts of our island by the middle of April, and for this purpose
an underground lodging is almost invariably sought,
whether it be a deep recess beneath some huge rock, a
rabbit-burrow, the hole of a Sand-Martin in the bank of a
pit, a crevice in some dry stone-wall, or the shelter of a clod
in a fallow field. Mr. Dutton mentions (Zool. p. 9099) a
nest built for several years in an old cannon. The bird
never seems to excavate a place for itself, but merely furnishes
any convenient retreat it may find with the materials
it wants for its fabric—bents, fibrous roots, dried fern and
moss forming the foundation, and feathers, rabbit’s fur and
wool, the lining. The whole is large and somewhat loosely
put together, so as to be kept in shape rather by its confined
position than by constructive skill. When the nest is in a
rabbit-burrow it is not unfrequently visible from the exterior,
but when under a stone it is often placed a long way from
the entrance and out of sight. I t can nearly always be found
with certainty by watching the hen-bird, and Salmon says
that on the large warrens of Suffolk and Norfolk its position
is easily detected by the considerable number of small pieces
of the withered stalks of the brake (Pteris aquilind) amassed
at the entrance of the burrow. When the place of concealment,
however, is beneath a rock or earth-fast stone, the
nest is often inaccessible to the finder. The eggs, from five to
eight hi number, are of a very pale blue, sometimes with a
green tinge, and occasionally marked with rusty dots; they
measure from -89 to ’77 by from -68 to *54 in. The same
pair of birds nearly always produces two and sometimes
even three broods in the season.
The male sings prettily, but not loud, often when hovering
on the wing, either near his nest or his partner. Sweet says
that in confinement the Wheatear is continually in song, by
night as well as by day, and that its winter song is the best
and the most varied.
The well-known South Downs of Sussex are visited by
the Wheatear from the end of July to the middle of September
in vast numbers, consisting almost exclusively of the
young birds which, having been bred in other parts of the
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