WHEATEAR 63 



figure — a pretty little wild friend ; for he, too, prefers the unculti- 

 vated wastes, the vast downs, the mountain slopes, and the stony 

 barren uplands. He is one of the earliest, if not the first, of the 

 summer migrants to arrive on our shores. They appear early in 

 March, sometimes at the end of February, on the south and east 

 coasts, after crossing the Channel by night or during the early hours 

 of the morning. They come in ' rushes,' at intervals of two or three 

 days. In the morning they are seen in thousands ; but after a few 

 hours' rest these travellers hurry on to their distant breeding-grounds, 

 and perhaps for a day or two scarcely a bird will be visible ; then 

 another multitude appears, and so on, until the entire vast army has 

 distributed itself far and wide over the British area, from the Sussex 

 and Dorset coasts to the extreme North of Scotland and the Hebrides, 

 the Orkneys, and Shetlands. The return migration begins early in 

 August, and lasts until the middle of September. During this period 

 the downs on the Sussex coast form a great camping-ground of the 

 wheatears, and they are then taken in snares by the shepherds for 

 the markets. Most of the birds taken are young ; they are exces- 

 sively fat, and are esteemed a great delicacy. The wheatear harvest 

 has, however, now dwindled down to something very small compared 

 with former times ; it astonishes us to read in Pennant that a 

 century and a quarter ago eighteen hundred dozens of these birds 

 were annually taken in the neighbourhood of Eastbourne alone. 

 The great decrease in the nimiber of wheatears is no doubt due to 

 the reclamation of waste lands, where this bird finds the conditions 

 suited to it. To a variety of climates it is able to adapt itself : the 

 vast area it inhabits includes almost the whole continent of Europe, 

 from the hot south to the furthermost north ; and westwards its 

 range extends to Iceland, Greenland, and Labrador. But cultivation 

 it cannot tolerate : when the plough comes the wheatear vanishes. 

 Fortunately, there must always be waste and desert places — the 

 scattered areas on mountain-sides, barren moors and downs, and 

 rocky coasts, that cannot be made productive. In such spots the 

 wheatear is an unfailing summer companion, and at once attracts 

 attention by his appearance and motions. He is fond of perching 

 on a rock, stone wall, or other elevation, but seldom alights on 

 bushes and trees. He runs rapidly and freely on the ground, and, 

 pausing at intervals and standing erect, moves his tail deliberately 

 up and down. He flies readily, his rump and tail flashing white as 

 he rises ; and after going but a short distance, flying close to the 

 ground, he alights again, and jerks and fans his tail two or three 



