108 



SYLVIAD.E. 



(especially in spring and autumn), they are with respect 

 to other birds most exclusive. Travelling through the 

 waste lands of England, one may sometimes go on for 

 miles and see no winged creatures but an occasional Wheat- 

 ear, which, with dipping flight, made conspicuous by the 

 snow-white spot at the base of its tail, shoots ahead of 

 us some thirty or forty yards, alights on a stone, and, after 

 a few uneasy upward and downward movements of its tail, 



starts off again to repeat the same manoeuvre, until we 

 begin to wonder what tempts it to stray away so far 

 from home. It does not ordinarily sing during these 

 excursions, but utters an occasional twitter very different 

 from its spring song. It builds its nest of grass, moss, 

 and leaves, and lines it with hair or wool, selecting some 

 very secret spot on the ground, a deserted rabbit-burrow 

 or cavfity under a rock, where, beyond the reach of any 



