302 ENGLISH BIRD LIFE 



for instance, whose habitat is strictly local — either 

 by constant persecution of the birds themselves, or 

 by the destruction of their haunts. But there is 

 no reason for believing that, however carefully 

 fostered it might be, the Bluethroat would be other 

 than an extremely rare bird. The woods and 

 coppices of the whole country are open to it, afford- 

 ing precisely the kind of hospitality it would seem 

 to need. But of certain types Nature does not 

 appear to provide an adequate supply. Where she 

 does, as in the case of the Wheatears, the power 

 of the species to resist systematic attack is most 

 marked. From time immemorial, Wheatears have 

 been slaughtered wholesale, and they were once 

 treated as a regular source of food-supply. Pennant, 

 w riting a century and a half ago, states that about 

 Eastbourne alone, 1840 dozens were snared annually. 

 Yet at no period has the Wheatear ceased to be a 

 common visitor to English heaths and fallows. 



Vandalism is a thing properly to be denounced, 

 but its absence will never cause to flourish a species 

 which Nature has dealt out with a niggardly hand. 



The nest of the Wheatear is made in rabbit- 

 holes, beneath a rock or wall, and sometimes in the 

 open, sheltered only by a clod of earth. The nest- 

 ing site is often discovered by the appearance of 

 the birds, which hang about the place, often vanish- 

 ing into the recess where the eggs are laid, and 

 again emerging to take up a conspicuous position 

 on rock or tussock near at hand. The photograph 

 shows a typical nesting-place. 



The bird's habit of creeping into sheltered nooks 

 in the ground when any danger threatens overhead 



