Birds, Spiders* 467 



migration is, therefore, confined to the month of March ; after 

 which they are seen only on the slopes of our hills fronting 

 the sea, which, being only sheepwalks, afford abundance of 

 wild thyme, and other plants that are supposed to attract the 

 insects on which the wheatear feeds. The only other situ- 

 ation in which, I believe, I have seen a resident wheatear, is on 

 the wild downs close to Dozmerry Pool, in the middle of the 

 county of Cornwall. The periods of this bird's first arrival 

 are here given : — March 17. 1817; March 18. 1816 and 1822; 

 March 20. 1818. My subsequent notes showed so little vari- 

 ation in the periods, that I have since ceased to mark them. 

 The wheatear reaches our shores 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 fishing-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. My own observations do not confirm 

 the remark, that one sex materially precedes the other ; they 

 rather appear to arrive indiscriminately. Through the sum- 

 mer, the wheatear is a common bird along our coasts, on the 

 slopes fronting the sea, somewhat above the bare uncovered 

 rocks. On the least alarm they flit over the precipice, and 

 take refuge in some place of shelter. The nest is not often 

 seen ; but our prying fisher-boys inform me that it is concealed 

 in the bottom of a deep recess, beneath some huge stone or 

 rock, far beyond the reach of their arms. Consequently 

 when discovered, a circumstance of some difficulty, they are 

 able to obtain it only by means of a hook fastened to the end 

 of a rod. This bird has a slight, but not unpleasing, song. 

 It is vulgarly known by the name of nacker.-^— J". Couch, 

 Polperro, CornwalL [Received June W, 1834-.] . 



[For the provincial name of the wheatear in the Orkneys, 

 and for a notice of its building, and of its eggs, as observed 

 there, see V. 424. : for a notice of the conditions of the wheat- 

 ear's migration in Donegal, Ireland, see V.582, note *.] 



Spiders. — A Spider infested mth Insects, — I found, last 

 year, in a hotbed, a spider so completely covered with indi- 

 viduals of a dark brown coleopterous [?] insect, that scarcely 

 any part of the spider was visible except its legs ; so that it 

 was with great difficulty the poor spider could move about. 

 I have preserved the spider in spirits, with all its pests about 

 it. — L. E. Meed. Tiverton, March 15. 1833. 



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