I034 WHEATEAR 



WHEATEAR, as a bird's name perhaps of doubtful ineaning,^ 

 though Taylor, the "water poet" {ph. 1654), in whose wiitings it 

 seems first to occur, and Willughby explain it (in the words of Ray, 

 the latter's translator) as given "because [in] the time of wheat 

 harvest they wax very fat.""^ 



The Whcatear, the Sazicola oenanthe of ornithologists, is one of 

 the earliest migrants of its kind to return to its home, often reach- 

 ing England at the end of February and almost always by the 

 middle of March. The cock with his bluish-grey back and light 

 buff breast, set off by black ear coverts, wings and part of the tail, 

 is rendered still more conspicuous by his white rump as he takes 

 short flights in front of those who disturb him, while his sprightly 

 actions and gay song harmonize so well with his delicately-tinted 

 plumage as to render him a welcome object to all who delight in 

 an open coimtry. When alarmed both sexes have a sharp mono- 

 syllabic note that sounds like chat ; and this has not only entered 

 into some of the local names of this species and of its allies, but has 

 caused all to be spoken of as Chats. The nest is constantly placed 

 under ground ; the bird taking advantage of the hole of some other 



if they are imaginative, are apt to ascribe the same feelings to the bird that utters 

 it. Thus we have writers finding in it a resemblance to "the wail of a lost 

 spirit " — that being presumably a sound with which they are acquainted. One 

 author terms Curlews "Plaintive creatures who pity themselves on moorlands" 

 — a pretty poetic fancy maybe, but sheer nonsense as every naturalist knows. 

 Given the moorland, the Whaup leads a happy life ; without it, he would have 

 good reason to pity himself. The unsuspecting traveller no doubt may be 

 occasionally startled at the sudden and loud cry, especially at night when the 

 bird is invisible, and this species is probably in many instances the cause of 

 the widely -spread belief, if one may so call it, in the mysterious "Seven 

 Whistlers," though the Golden Plover, and perhaps other night-flying Limicolas 

 on MIGRATION (pages 571, 572) may contribute to the consternation of the 

 listener. 



^ The supposition that it is an euphemism of an Anglo-Saxon name (c/. 

 Bennett's ed. of White's Nat. Hist. Selb. p. 69, note) must be rejected until it be 

 shewn that such a name ever existed. It is true that " Whittaile" (c/. Dutch 

 Witstaart and French Culblanc) is given by Cotgrave in 1611 ; but the older 

 names, according to Turner, in 1544, of " Clotburd " ( = Clod-bird) and " Smatch " 

 ( = Chat) do not point in that direction. "Fallow-chat" is another old name 

 still locally in use, as is "Coney-chuck." 



^ It would seem also from this author to have been originally the local name 

 for the species in Sussex, on the South Downs of which county its capture in a 

 very simple kind of trap has been the occupation of many generations of shepherds, 

 who thereby have made an excellent trade, since Wheatears in their proper 

 season, from the end of July till towards the end of September, are justly 

 esteemed for the table and fetch a price that for many years has been continually 

 rising owing to the failing supply, Avhich is chiefly due to the bringing under 

 tillage of so much of the sheep-walk, heath, down and other open country that 

 was formerly in a natural condition. 



