226 THE BIRDS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



until the young are hatched is uncertain. Towards the end of 

 August the family parties become less noticeable, and though 

 a few individuals remain until early October, most depart in 

 September. 



The male in spring is yellowish brown with dark, almost 

 black, striations, black cheeks and ear-coverts, and a notice- 

 able white superciliary stripe and line from the chin to the 

 neck. On the brown wing are two white patches, the smaller, 

 on the primary coverts, absent in immature birds and females. 

 The basal half of the tail is white, though when the tail is 

 closed the upper tail-coverts partially conceal the central 

 portion. Rich rufous under parts shade to dull white on the 

 belly. Buff edges, which are abraded later, dull the whole of 

 the plumage after the autumn moult and give the bird a 

 yellowish appearance. The bill and legs are black, the irides 

 brown. The female is paler, and her upper parts are browner. 

 The young bird (on the left, Plate 92) is blotched and 

 streaked, and its breast spotted with brown. The young look 

 lighter and redder than the adult birds. Length, 5 ins. Wing, 

 2'9 ins. Tarsus, "9 in. 



Wheatear. (Enanthe cena7ithe (Linn.). 



Two distinct races of Wheatear occur regularly in the British 

 Isles. The typical form (Plate 94) is a summer resident and 

 passage migrant ; its range is practically northern Palaearctic 

 in summer ; it winters in tropical Africa. The larger and 

 more brightly coloured Greenland Wheatear, CE. ce. Uucorrhoa 

 (Gmel.) breeds in Greenland and north-east America, and 

 possibly Iceland, and winters further south in America, or in 

 Africa, travelling through western Europe on migration. 



The Wheatear can be recognised by its white rump, tail- 

 coverts and tail, contrasting with the central feathers and black 

 terminal band of the last. The name is derived from this 



