88 RURAL BIRD LIFE. 



young Wheatears are tended by their parents for some 

 considerable time after leaving the nest, and when an 

 intruder happens to disturb them the anxiety of their 

 parents is touching in the extreme. The young birds, 

 not so strong upon the wing as their parents, keep 

 alighting close to the observer, and the old birds fly at a 

 considerable height in the air in circles round his head, 

 uttering a short plaintive note, speaking of love and 

 anxiety for their tender brood. When the young are in 

 safety the old birds still follow the observer for some 

 considerable distance. 



When the heather's purple flowers are withering and 

 the bracken has partially donned its autumnal hue, the 

 Wheatears are seen in small flocks, and as the month of 

 September draws near its close they congregate in still 

 larger numbers, and finally wing their way southwards ; 

 and though they may tarry for an indefinite period on 

 the downs, or other parts of the south coast, still, up 

 here in Yorkshire, their moorland home knows them not 

 until the following spring. 



