292 BULLETIN 196, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



area, and with a tendency to go round and round. Having done 

 this a little, he runs quickly from the hollow, picks a few little bits 

 of grass, returns with them into it, drops them there, comes out 

 again, hops about as before, flies up into the air, descends again and 

 dances about." 



Presently the female reappeared, the rivals meantime hopping or 

 flitting about, singing or maneuvering around one another in a rather 

 indefinite fashion until at last a fierce fight took place. This, how- 

 ever, appeared to lead to no positive result, the combatants separating 

 as if by mutual consent to resume their hopping about, singing, and 

 displaying. After another fight and more of the same sort of behavior, 

 one of the males flew to the female, "and these two are now in each 

 other's company, singing, flying and twittering for some ten minutes. 

 It would seem as though she had made her choice, and that this was 

 submitted to by the rejected bird, but just before leaving at six o'clock 

 all three are together again." Here, unfortunately, the account ends. 

 At the end of March the birds would probably not long have arrived 

 on their breeding grounds, and it seems clear that Selous was fortunate 

 enough to witness most of the drama of pair formation, though it is a 

 pity that he missed the last act. But in the case of Lloyd's observa- 

 tion, the birds were evidently paired, as would be expected from the 

 date, and it is evident that the "dancing" display may be an outlet 

 for sexual excitement at widely different stages of the breeding cycle. 



Nesting. — The wheatear is territorial in its breeding habits. The 

 nest is normally always under cover. In Britain, especially in the 

 lowlands and on the less elevated hills and downlands, it is very com- 

 monly in a rabbit burrow. Otherwise the normal site is a cavity under 

 or among rocks, or in heaps of stones, and doubtless this is the 

 type of situation normally used in Alaska. In Europe it may also 

 sometimes be placed in an old stone wall or drain pipe, and near 

 human habitations old tins and all sorts of other artificial receptacles 

 may be occupied. Occasionally a somewhat more open site may be 

 used, and Boyd Alexander (1908) has recorded that on the Kent 

 coast it is not unusual to find nests built in a mere depression on the 

 bare beach, but in most districts such a situation would be considered 

 highly abnormal. 



The male may inspect nest sites before the arrival of a female, but 

 later both sexes or the female, with the male accompanying her, have 

 been observed doing so and it appears probable that the female 

 exercises the final choice (Nethersole-Thompson, 1943). The nest is 

 generally built by both sexes, though principally by the female. It 

 is rather loosely built cup of grasses, bents and roots, and sometimes 

 moss, lined with fine grass or rootlets, hair and feathers, and bits of 

 wool or vegetable down. 



