WHEATEAE. 103 



aquilina, on the outside, at the entrance of the burrow : 

 by noticing this circumstance its nest is sure to be 

 discovered." There is httle doubt that this is the 

 species thus noticed by Sir Thomas Browne; "Avis 

 trogloditica or chock, a small bird, mixed of black and 

 white, and breeding in coney-burrows, whereof the 

 warrens are full from April to September, at which time 

 they leave the country. They are taken with a hobby 

 and a net, and are a very good dish." I have frequently 

 observed them on their first arrival in spring, exhibiting 

 a most singular diversity of colouring in the gradual 

 assumption of the breeding plumage, the earliest speci- 

 mens having the grey of the upper parts much clouded 

 with brown, but in a short time the grey predominates, 

 and in old males becomes quite pure. By the sea- 

 side, I have always found them more numerous along 

 the extensive line of marram hills, in the vicinity of 

 Hunstanton, than amongst the brakes and farze, upon 

 the lofty cliffs in the neighbourhood of Cromer, though 

 equally perforated with rabbits' burrows; and on dis- 

 sction have almost invariably found their stomachs 

 filled with the remains of such small beetles as are seen 

 at the roots or on the blades of grasses, and minute 

 spiders, commonly called ^^ money spinners." A very 

 curious female variety, killed at Thetford, in July, 

 1850, is thus described by Mr. J. 11. Gurney in the 

 '^Zoologist," p. 2923, "The colour on the head, neck, 

 wing-coverts, back, rump, tail, throat, breast, and belly, 

 are distributed as usual. The most singular thing about 

 this specimen is, however, the circumstance of the wings 

 being of a pure white with the exception of a few feathers 

 on the shoulders, and two or three adjoining primaries 

 in the centre of each wing, which are of a pale buff 

 colour." 



