THE WHEATEAR (STONE-SMATCH) so 
near the sea are the favourite resort of this lively bird, to which 
it repairs from its transmarine winter quarters towards the second 
week of March. Hereit may beseen for several weeks flitting from 
rock to rock, and occasionally soaring to thejheight of about twenty 
yards into the air, warbling from time to time its pleasant song, 
now aloft, and now restlessly perched on a rock, or bank, or low stone 
wall, calling chack-chack—and making itself all the more welcome 
that few others among our summer visitants have as yet recovered 
their voices. Weneed not suppose that Wheatears prolong their stay 
on the coast in order to rest after their voyage. More probably 
they make marine insects (for these are abundant even in early 
spring) the principal portion of their food, and are taught, by the 
same instinct which guided them across the sea, to remain where 
their wants will be fully supplied until land insects have emerged 
from their winter quarters. As the season advances many of 
them proceed inland, and repair to barren districts, whether moun- 
tainous or lowland, where they may enjoy a considerable expanse 
without any great admixture of trees. A wide common studded 
with blocks of stone, a rabbit-warren or sloping upland, is likely 
to be more or less thickly peopled by these shy birds. Shy we 
term them, because, disposed as they are to be social among them- 
selves (especially in spring and autumn), they are with respect 
to other birds most exclusive. Travelling through the waste lands 
of England, one may sometimes go on for miles and see no winged 
creatures but an occasional Wheatear, which, with dipping flight, 
made conspicuous by the snow-white spot at the base of its tail, 
shoots ahead of us some thirty or forty yards, alights on a stone, 
and, after a few uneasy upward and downward movements of 
its tail, starts off again to repeat the same manceuvre, until we 
begin to wonder what tempts it to stray away so far from home. 
It does not ordinarily sing during these excursions, but utters its 
occasional note, very different from its spring song. It builds 
its nest of grass, moss, and leaves, and lines it with hair or wool, 
selecting some very secret spot on the ground, a deserted rabbit- 
burrow or cavity under a rock, where, beyond the reach of any 
but the most cunning marauder, it lays five or six eggs. Early in 
August, when the young are fully fledged, the scattered colonies 
of Wheatears assemble for emigration on open downs near the 
sea. We have seen a good many of them on the sandy coast of 
Norfolk and of North Hales; but it is on the extensive downs of 
Sussex that they collect in the largest numbers, not in flocks, but 
in parties of six or eight ; each party perhaps constituting a family. 
They here retain their shy habits of flying off at the approach of 
a human being, and are often seen to drop suddenly, where they 
may remain concealed from sight behind a stone, furze-bush or 
bank. The shepherds and others, whose vocation lies on the 
downs, used to take advantage of the habit of these birds to con- 
