WfllNCHAT — WHEATEAR. 59 



it often does, on the broad white flower panicle of some um- 

 belliferous plant in the midst of a sea of meadow grass, sway- 

 ing- in the wind. 



THE WHEATEAR. -J 



Saxicola oeuuntlie. 



The Wheatear is a passing visitor at the periods of migra- 

 tion, occasionally remaining to breed. In spring it arrives 

 from the end of March, appearing on the arable fields, and is 

 seen until the end of April, the same individuals not remaining 

 long. The autumn passage commences at the end of August 

 or early in September, and Wheatears are occasionally seen in 

 the early pai-t of October; as late as the 13th of that month 

 in 1880 one was shot while sitting on the ridge of a barn roof 

 at Bodicote by the Rev. B. D'Oyly Aplin. During their 

 stay with us they haunt the ploughed fields, bare upland 

 grassfields, and downs, as well as the rough meadows, and are 

 often seen on the railway banks in small parties of up to a 

 score in number. At such times they have been noticed about 

 Weston-on-the-Green, Kingham, Oxford, Chinnor, andEwelme 

 Common, when they are sometimes in numbers (W. Newton, 

 jun. in lit.). Also commonly in parts of the north of the 

 county, where they are known to agriculturists, and were well 

 described to me as arriving about the time of barley sowing 

 uj)on the fallows, sitting out on the clods of earth, and 

 showing white on their backs when they flew. The Rev. H. 

 A. Macpherson thought the Wheatear bred in some fields 

 about Marston Ferry, near Oxford, which they frequented 

 in May and June, 1878, 1879, and 1880. The Messrs. 

 Matthews also say that it did so occasionally in their neigh- 

 bourhood [Zoologist, p. 3541). An egg taken near Barford in 

 1885 was shown to me, and in the early part of July, 1888, I 

 saw near Nether Worton a Wheatear which I had no doubt had 

 a nest in a heap of stones by the side of the field road between 

 that place and Hempton. I have also met with individuals 



