256 SYLVIAD.E. 



blue eggs. The nest is easily detected by a little observation, 

 for in such situations the old birds amass a considerable 

 number of small pieces of the withered stalks of the brake, 

 Pteris aquilina, on the outside at the entrance of the bur- 

 row : by noticing this circumstance its nest is sure to be 

 discovered." I have more than once found the nest in a 

 fallow field under a large clot, to which my attention was 

 drawn by a portion of the materials of which the nest was 

 composed appearing outside the hole through which the bird 

 passed to the hollow space within. The eggs are of a uni- 

 form delicate pale blue, measuring ten lines and a half in 

 length, and seven lines and a half in breadth. 



The male sings prettily, but not loud, sometimes even 

 when hovering on the wing, either near his nest or his 

 partner. Mr. Sweet, in his British Warblers, says, " that 

 in confinement the Wheatear is continually in song, and 

 sings by night as well as by day : their winter song is the 

 best and the most varied." 



Whether owing to the art with which the nest of this 

 bird is mostly concealed, or placed beyond the reach of dan- 

 ger ; whether from the great number of the parent birds that 

 breed here ; or that in autumn the numerous families migrate 

 toward the same point on our southern coast from which to 

 take their departure ; but the number of these birds seen and 

 taken every autumn in the county of Sussex alone is very 

 extraordinary. 



The extensive downs between Eastbourne and Beachy- 

 head are visited by the Wheatear from the end of July to 

 the middle of September by hundreds in daily succession. 

 Other portions of the downs along the southern coast have 

 their share also of these periodical emigrants ; and as they 

 are then fat and of good flavour, it is customary to dress them 

 by dozens at the inns of the numerous watering-places on the 

 Sussex coast. 



