WHEATEAR. 29 1 



The Stonechat is a different bird, though Magillivray called 

 the present species the " White-rumped Stonechat." Throughout 

 Europe the bird is commonly known as the " White-rump," and 

 Saunders considers the name " wheatear " a corruption of white 

 and cBrs^ — the Anglo-Saxon equivalent of the modern word 

 " rump." 



In Europe and Asia the species is abundant, breeding from cen- 

 tral Europe far to the northward, and migrating in winter to north- 

 ern Africa. A few winter in the British Islands, though these may 

 be of the Greenland race, which some authors think is a distinct 

 form, — larger than those that breed in Europe, — as the Green- 

 land birds are known to migrate across Great Britain. Ridgway 

 states that the examples taken on our western coast are smaller and 

 more like those found in central Europe. 



Formerly large numbers were trapped in the autumn on the 

 Southdowns in England, and marketed, being considered little 

 inferior in delicacy to the famous Ortolans. 



The favorite resorts of the Wheatear at all seasons are the lonely 

 moors or open meadows by the sea-shore. It is an active bird and 

 always alert, keeping up a perpetual flitting. It is very terrrestrial, 

 though the Greenland race is said to perch on trees more fre- 

 quently than the European bird. 



The song is sweet and sprightly, and the male often sings while 

 hovering over his mate. 



Mr. Hagerup writes to me that the birds in Greenland sing at 

 times very similarly to the Snow Buntings, — a song that he never 

 heard from the Wheatears of Denmark, — and this song is ren- 

 dered by both females and males. Seebohm writes : " The love 

 notes form a short but pleasing song ; and the more particularly 

 are we apt to view his performance with favor, because it gener- 

 ally greets the ear in wild and lonely places." And again : " Some- 

 times he warbles his notes on his perch, accompanying them with 

 graceful motion of the wings, and finally launching into the air to 

 complete his song, the aerial fluttering seeming to give the perform- 

 ance additional vigor." Dixon has seen " two Wheatears in the 

 air together, buffeting each other, and singing lustily all the time, 

 with all the sweetness that love rivalry inspires." 



