RED-SPOTTED BLUETHROAT 303 



Witherby's Handbook (1920) gives the average of 40 eggs as 21.8 

 by 15.8 millimeters. 



Food. — Clarence F. Smith has sent me the following information on 

 the food of the Greenland wheatear, taken from a paper by T. G. 

 Longstaff (1932): The stomachs of eight wheatears from western 

 Greenland were examined; they held Coleoptera and their larvae in 

 six stomachs, parasitic Hymenoptera in six, Diptera and their larvae 

 in five, Lepidoptera adults in two and their larvae in two, and 

 Heteroptera in two. Spiders, gastropod shells, shrimps, harvestmen, 

 Trichoptera, and Neuroptera also were found. All stomachs con- 

 tained some animal matter. Plant food was found in seven stomachs, 

 including crowberry (Empetrum nigrum) in six and seeds of Vaccinium 

 uUginostim and Juniper us communis. 



Behavior. — All the habits of the species have been so fully and well 

 described in B. W. Tucker's excellent account of the European wheat- 

 ear that it hardly seems necessary to say anything more about them 

 here. However, the following account by Dr. Harrison F. Lewis 

 (1928) of the behavior of a Greenland wheatear that he saw at 

 Natashquan, Quebec, is of interest: 



It had a way of standing quietly for some time in one place, puffed out to a 

 sturdy, rotund figure, perched on slender feet, with the high, rounded dome of its 

 gray head rising directly from the upper end of its body. When it was darting on 

 foot after insects on the ground it depressed and extended its head, and appeared 

 wide and flat. It pursued its prey with quick little darting runs, now here, now 

 there, with head lowered. Sometimes it would flit about for greater or less dis- 

 tances rather restlessly, at other times it would stand entirely still, except for 

 quiet but alert turning of the head, for minutes together. 



When the bird was restive because of my close approach and observation, it 

 would stand erect and regard me attentively, and occasionally would give a quick 

 littie bob and jerk, as though feigning to spring into the air, yet not moving its 

 toes all the while. Sometimes such a jerk was accompanied by a quick, nervous 

 flirt of the wings, exposing for a flash the white about the upper part of the tail, 

 and sometimes it was not so accompanied. Of course, when the bird flew the 

 white of the upper part of the tail was very conspicuous. 



CYANOSYLVIA SUECICA ROBUSTA (Buturlin) 

 RED-SPOTTED BLUETHROAT 



Contributed by Bernard William Tucker 



HABITS 



The bluethroat as a species extends right across Europe and Asia 

 and just reaches the New World. A number of races have been 

 separated, 15 being recognized by Hartert and Steinbacher (1938). 

 In most of these the striking brilliant blue gorget has a chestnut-red 

 spot in the center, but in the Middle European form, C. s. cyanecula, 

 the spot is silky white. In several other races the spot is either 



