RUDDY-BREASTED BIRDS. 



WHEATEAR.— Plate 38. 6 inches. Crown, 

 hind-neck, and back blue-gray ; eyebrow white ; black 

 stripe through the eye ; wings and tail black, except 

 several of the outer tail-feathers, which are white at 

 the base ; rump also white ; under parts white, warm 

 buff on the throat and breast. Male in autumn, and 

 female at all times, brown above. Bill and legs black, 

 the former sharply pointed. Summer migrant. 



Eggs. — 5—7, pale greenish-blue, sometimes with 

 minute purplish specks at the larger end ; '8 x '6 inch 

 (plate 125). 



Nest. — Of dry grass, lined with wool and hair, 

 and placed in rabbit-burrows, in the interstices of 

 cairns, stone walls, or peat-stacks, or on the ground 

 under shelter of stone or clod. 



Distribution. — General. 



The Wheatear is usually the first of the summer 

 migrants to arrive in the British Islands, where it 

 remains from March until September. It distributes 

 itself over moorland and by the seashore, nesting in 

 rabbit- burrows, stone piles, peat-stacks, or in the 

 shelter of a clod — in short, in a hollow of some sort 

 in, on, or near the ground. It is not possible to 

 overlook the Wheatear, for he remonstrates ere one 

 has really invaded his domains. Perching on a stone 

 or clod or low mound, he dips his head and flirts his 

 tail excitedly, crying ' Chat-chat-ee ! ' without cease, 



