The Wheat ear. 31 



moss, and liued with feathers and hair, or hair alone. The eggs are said to vary 

 from fonr to eight in number, six being the usual clutch ; they are somewhat 

 elongated, pale greenish blue, and (almost invariably) unspotted, but very rarely 

 there are a few very indistinct purplish dots at the larger end. 



The Wheatear is largely insectivorous, capturing much of its food on the 

 wing after the manner of the Flycatchers. It also eats larvae of various insects, 

 spiders, small worms and molluscs, but in the autumn it also eats the wild moor- 

 land fruits : it is a pretty sight to watch this bird perched upon a wall, its tail 

 swaying up and down like that of a Wagtail : presently you see it jerk its 

 head upwards and off it darts with graceful fluttering flight after some passing 

 beetle or fly, which it captures without difficulty. If you creep up to watch 

 more closely, it waits until perhaps only a few yards intervene between 3'ou and 

 it, then away it flits, somewhat after the fashion of a Wagtail, to some more 

 distant rock. When searching for the nest in Norfolk and hoping that the bird 

 would reveal its proximit}' by returning, after a short journey in one direction, to 

 some previously occupied rock, we found that it still flew before us from rock to 

 rock ; it became evident that our fruitless search could only be explained by the 

 fact that we were too late upon the scene. 



The Wheatear first arrives in the south of England towards the end of 

 March, the males reaching our shores a little earlier than the females, but they 

 usuall}^ begin to build about the middle of April and the nest may be found from 

 this time to about the middle of May, but although the species is double-brooded, 

 the June nests seem less easy to discover, possibly they may be more carefully 

 concealed, or the increased power of the sixn makes stooping more irksome to the 

 searcher. In August and September numbers congregate together, in preparation 

 for their migration to the south ; at this season many are snared by the shepherds 

 on the Sussex Downs and destro3'ed for food ; by the beginning of October most 

 of the survivors have left the country. 



The song of this bird is a short, but not unpleasant warbling, but its call 

 notes are less musical, resembling the sharp chink, chack, chack produced by the 

 concussion of a flint and steel. 



In confinement the Wheatear or " Clod," as the London birdcatchers call it, 

 soon gains confidence in the goodwill of its owner and flies up to the wires to 

 take flies or mealworms from his fingers; it is a peaceful law-abiding subject; 

 but when some favourite morsel has been snatched from under its very bill, it 

 sometimes shows its annoyance by the sharp click of its mandibles, characteristic 

 of most insectivorous birds. The first Wheatear I ever possessed was brought to 

 me one evening by a small bird-dealer, who informed me that it had been caught 



H 



