EUROPEAN WHEATEAR 297 



Nicholson (1936) has described a subdued subsong, heard from a young 

 bird in August, a low inward warbling reminiscent of the song of the 

 skylark (Alauda arvensis). 



Field marks. — The wheatear has been compared to a bluebird as to 

 shape, flight, and feeding habits, though it is actually somewhat 

 smaller and its coloring is very different. The outstanding marks of 

 the species are its white rump and white tail with broad black term- 

 inal band and black central feathers, combined with black or blackish 

 wings. This pattern is as distinctive of the somewhat spotted young 

 as of the adults. The adult male in breeding plumage is a clear gray 

 above with a black mark through the eye bordered by white above 

 and with whitish underparts, more or less tinged with sandy buff on 

 the breast. In autumn and winter he is much browner and more 

 like the female, which is brown above and buff below, with the blacks 

 of the male replaced by dark brown and the dark facial mark often 

 quite obscure. If birds of the present and Greenland races are seen 

 together, at any rate in Britain, where it is no very exceptional ex- 

 perience since the latter is a regular passage bird, the Greenlander 

 appears a noticeably larger and stouter bird and often seems to have 

 a bolder, more upright carriage. It should be noted, however, that 

 the Alaskan wheatears also tend to be rather large. In spring typical 

 males of the two races are tolerably distinct in coloring and many 

 Greenlanders can be recognized in the field with considerable confidence 

 by observers with a good eye and the requisite experience, owing to 

 the birds deeper buff underparts and rather more brown-tinged, less pure 

 gray upperparts. But a good many individuals could not be dis- 

 tinquished in the field by coloring. In Britain it is also noticeable 

 that the Greenland bird is quite decidedly more prone to perch in 

 trees than is the common form, but as further explained under "Be- 

 havior" this point in itself must not be relied on too much. In any 

 case information is lacking as to the habits of the Alaskan birds in 

 this respect. 



Enemies. — The wheatear is liable to the attacks of hawks in the 

 same way as other small birds frequenting open ground, and its nest 

 to the occasional depredations of ground vermin as are other species 

 of similar nesting habits. 



In the southeast of England, man would formerly have had to be 

 reckoned as its chief enemy, for wheatears were at one time greatly 

 esteemed by epicures and were trapped in fantastic numbers od the 

 autumn migration by the shepherds of the South Downs of Sussex. 

 The traps, or "coops," as they were called, were made by the simple 

 device of cutting a small trench in the turf and laying across it, 

 grassy side downward, the sod removed in making it. This formed 



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