32 The Isabelline Wheatear. 



that afternoon and that, if I did not care to give ninepence for it, he meant to 

 kill and stuff it for one of his customers. Of course I bought it, turned it into 

 a large flight cage in my study and hoped to reconcile it to captivity. Unlike 

 many birds when newly caught, this Wheatear appeared to be quite at home at 

 once, but I could not succeed in inducing it to eat anything but mealworms and 

 house-flies ; berries it would not look at, and soft food it regarded with utter 

 contempt ; in three days it died. 



A second specimen was brought to me, about nine years later, by a friend 

 who had already kept it for about a week, in a room with other British Birds. 

 I turned it out with Wagtails and other birds in a large unheated aviary ; it took 

 kindly to the soft food from the first, and ate a good many cockroaches daily ; 

 passed through the winter without mishap, came into full breeding plumage and 

 commenced to sing in the spring : sometimes, but rarely, it sang on the wing ; 

 it usually preferred to sit close to a wide casement, which is kept open during 

 the mild weather, and warble at intervals. When a fly passed into the aviary, 

 it had little chance of escaping ; the Wheatear, a Redstart and a Grey Wagtail 

 were all after it at once, and the Redstart was generally the winner ; the 

 Wheatear coming in second, and the Wagtail rarely getting a chance, in spite 

 of its marvellous aerial acrobatic powers. Unfortunately this bird did not live 

 many months ; before I had kept it a year it died suddenly ; although the day 

 previously, it had appeared to be in excellent health. 



Other species of Wheatears have been admitted into the British list, but 

 their claim to this position is based upon the chance occurrence of one or two 

 examples in this country. Whilst denying that this gives them a title to the 

 name of Britisher, it may perhaps be as well to record their names : — 



Family— TURDID.^. Subfamily— TURBINE. 



The Isabelline Wheatear. 



Saxicola isabellina, Rupp. 



ADMITTED to be an English bird on the ground that a single female 

 example was shot at Allonby, in Cumberland, on the nth November, 1887. 



