140 THE NESTS AND EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



Family TURDID^. Genus SAXICOLA. 



Sub-family TURDIN^. 



WHEATEAR. 



SAXICOLA CENANTHE (Linnaus). 

 Single Brooded. Laying season, April and May. 



BRITISH BREEDING AREA : The Wheatear is widely 

 but to some extent locally distributed throughout the 

 British Islands, especially so in the southern and western 

 counties of England. It becomes very perceptibly com- 

 moner northwards, and breeds in the Hebrides (even 

 reaching St. Kilda), the Orkneys, and the Shetlands. In 

 Ireland it is equally widely dispersed, but is more 

 abundant in wild upland localities than in the more 

 cultivated areas. 



BREEDING HABITS : The Wheatear is one of our very 

 earliest spring migrants, beginning to arrive towards the 

 close of March, and continuing to do so throughout the 

 following month. Its favourite summer haunts are open 

 lands, stone quarries, warrens, moorlands, and mountain 

 sides and downs. Like all the stone Chats the Wheatear 

 shuns the timbered districts, and is rarely seen near 

 trees or brushwood except during passage. Although 

 gregarious during migration, the Wheatear is not even 

 social during the nesting season, each pair keeping to 

 its ov/n particular haunt, notwithstanding the fact that 

 many individuals may be breeding in a small area. 

 This species pairs soon after the arrival of the females, 

 the males preceding them by a few days. The nest of 

 the Wheatear is invariably placed in a well-sheltered 

 situation, and hence is very difficult to find. Sometimes 

 it is made in a crevice of a rock, under a heap of stones, 

 in a hole in a wall, or under a piece of loose turf in the 



