30 The Wheatear. 



of black. In autumn, owing to the broad pale buff borders to the new feathers, 

 the male uearl}^ resembles the female ; but during the winter these borders seem 

 to be partly lost and the colour (as with that in the plumage of manj' other birds) 

 grows in the feathers themselves without a further moult.* 



Young birds are spotted above and below, the feathers of the wings and tail 

 being also edged and tipped with buif. 



The name Wheatear is derived from the words white and the Anglo-Saxon 

 cers (rump) ; I believe the bird is still called " JVhifus" by the peasantry in some 

 parts of England; it is also known by the names of "Stone Clatter'' and 

 " Clacharan " (Little mason.) 



In Kent I have seen this bird but once, and then only on a wild neglected 

 piece of grass-land close to a cultivated watercress stream ; in the side of a bank 

 overhanging this stream was a hollow, probably the end of a mole burrow, which 

 had been cut across to lengthen the bed of the stream ; and in this hollow was 

 the Wheatear's nest ; unfortunately she had not commenced to lay. In the same 

 place a lady friend obtained eggs of this species the year before. 



In June, 1886, I saw a considerable number of Wheatears : they were flying 

 about the broken cliffs between Yarmouth and Caister, where sand and patches of 

 reedy grass are commingled over irregular slopes and hollows ; an expanse desolate 

 indeed in appearance, but the home of numerous rabbits, whose burrows in every 

 direction form traps for the heedless pedestrian. I looked in mau}^ a hole for 

 nests, but my search was not rewarded. I thought of, and put into practice, the 

 advice given in the following extract from Yarrell, 4th edition, to no purpose. 

 "When the nest is in a rabbit-burrow it is not unfrequently visible from the 

 exterior, but when under a rock it is often placed a long way from the entrance, 

 and out of sight. It can nearly always be found with certainty, by watching the 

 hen-bird, and Salmon says that on the large warrens of Suflfolk and Norfolk its 

 position is easil}- detected by the considerable number of small pieces of the 

 withered stalks of the brake amassed at the entrance of tlie burrow. When the 

 place of concealment, however, is beneath a rock or earth-fast stone, the nest is 

 often inaccessible to the finder." 



In addition to its favourite rabbit-burrow, the Wlieatear utilizes heaps of 

 stones, niches in walls, peat-stacks or banks ; or even hollows partly sheltered by 

 a large clod or stone, as building sites. The nest is a rather large and flattish 

 structure, loosely formed of very fine dried grass, sometimes rootlets and a little 



• In tlie case of the- Indigo Bunting of N. .\nierica, the change from brown winter plumage to the bright 

 blue and green of the breeding dress, is chiefly due to a gradual growth of the bright colouring in the feathers, 

 comparatively few feathers being shed : I have the .skiu of a bird which died half through its spring change, 

 showing the feathers in their transitional stage. 



