94 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
the lower mandible under the black, which it nearly 
surrounds; the back and scapulars are black, each 
feather broadly margined with pale yellowish rusty ; 
tail-coverts rusty, with a black spot near the tip of 
each feather, tips themselves nearly white; wing- 
coverts black, with a slight margin of rusty; the 
feathers of both the greater and lesser wing-coverts 
nearest the body white, making a conspicuous patch 
of white in that part of the wing; bastard wing 
white; quills and tail dark dusky, almost black, with 
a slight margin (broadest on the tertials) of yellowish 
rusty; throat, breast and flanks bright yellowish 
rufous; belly and under tail-coverts nearly white ; 
legs, toes and claws black. 
In the female the colours are not quite so bright ; 
the white on the bastard wing is not so conspic- 
uous, being mixed with yellowish rusty; and the 
throat, breast and flanks are not so rufous, and have 
more of the yellow in them. 
The eggs are bright greenish blue, more or less 
speckled with rusty: they are slightly larger than 
those of the last species. 
WueaTEar, Saxicola Ginanthe. Except perhaps 
the Chiffchaff, the Wheatear is the earliest of our 
summer visitants, arriving in this country in March, 
occasionally quite early in the month: it is a toler- 
ably numerous species throughout the length of our 
coast, and on the Mendip Hills: on the Quantocks 
it is confined to the western slope towards the sea, 
