92 TIIE SMALLER BRITISR BIRDS. 



places of resort for the summer months. They are nowhere more 

 abundant than on the extensive downs of Sussex and Dorset. In 

 Wales and Ireland they are plentiful, and are among the commonest 

 birds of the Orkney and Shetland Isles, and the outer Hebrides. 

 Maegillivray says, "The stony slopes of Arthur^s Seat and Salisbury 

 Craigs, in the King's Park, near Edinburgh, are favourite resorts of 

 the Wheatears: and there, although they are much disturbed by boys, 

 their manners may be satisfactorily studied with little trouble. So 

 abundant are they in Hari'is, that the boys regularly search the walls 

 every year in the beginning of May for their nests, of which great 

 numbers are destroyed, the object of the plunderers being to procure 

 their eggs for food." 



These birds are to bo found over the whole continent of Europe, 

 but arc most abundant in the warmer parts bordering on the Medi- 

 terranean, and in Norway and Sweden. They have been observed in 

 Asia Minor, the Faroe Islands, and Iceland, and a specimen was seen 

 by Captain James Eoss in Arctic America. 



The adult male is about six inches and a half in length, and weighs 

 six and a half drachms; the irides are dark brown; a black line ex- 

 tends from the beak to the ear coverts, beneath the eye and on the 

 cheeks it expands to a considerable width; a narrow line above this 

 is white. The whole upper part of the body is a liglit ashen grey, 

 slightly mottled with reddish brown. The chin and throat are a dull 

 yellowish white, and the breast yellowish brown; the wing coverts 

 and quill feathers are almost black. The tail is white for the two 

 thirds nearest the body, and the remainder black, except the two centre 

 feathers, which are entirely black. The bill, feet, and claws, are black. 

 The female is reddish grey on the back, and generally darker than 

 the male; the white of the tail is tinged with red, and the smaller 

 wing coverts edged with the same colour. After the first moult the 

 male and female both exhibit the reddish grey tint on the back. 



Like the Stone and Whin Chats, these birds are fond of perching 

 on slight elevations, from whence they can keep a sharp look-out all 

 around them. They are very alert aud wary, and will rarely allow 

 any intruder on their haunts to approach very closely, betaking them- 

 selves to walls or hedges, along which they fly with great celerity, 

 incessantly emitting their cry of chaclc, chack. Their song is short, 

 lively, and sweet, and is frequently uttered while they hover at a 

 small height in the air. When engaged in searching for food, which 

 consists entirely of slugs, worms, suails, and small insects, these birds 

 hop along the ground with rapidity, jerking out tho tail, and inclining 

 the body in the manner of the other Chats, whenever they stop. 



