CHAPTER IV 



WHEATEARS 



As you walk along the warrens, where the yellow silver- 

 weed blooms at the edge of the sand-dunes, you may in early 

 spring come upon the first pair of wheatears as they flitter 

 across the marram green hills and show their white rump- 

 bands ; for upon their arrival across the grey sea they 

 frequent the warrens at first — it is warmer there, and they 

 can feed upon the early flies and sand-bred insects. And 

 this practice of theirs has earned them the nickname of 

 "coney-suckers," their common name amongst the Broads- 

 men, for they say these birds enter the " rabbit eyes " in the 

 dunes and suck the milch-does. 



One spring, whilst walking along the crest of the sandhills, 

 amongst clumps of honeysuckle, juicy oak sapHngs, brakes 

 of bramble, blackthorn, bracken, and flowering gorse — for 

 such is the lean flora that flourishes amongst the marram's 

 fibrous roots — I suddenly saw two birds fly up before 

 me, and flying on, alight on the sand, standing very up- 

 rightly, and looking very black and white against the 

 sandy background. Sinking into the soft warm marram, 

 I watched them feeding on insects, working like a robin, 

 though more eagerly, and cheeping like a titlark. Every 

 now and then they would pause, and, standing upright, look 

 as elegant as any courtly lady. Then they flitted on to a 

 spray of gorse, and so I followed them to the round steeple 

 that stands without the sandy fortalice. 



I knew them from the first for wheatears, but after close 

 shadowing and careful observation, my glasses proved them 



