220 THE WHEATEAR. 



fully hidden by projecting fragments as not to be 

 observed from without until part of the rock was 

 removed : her fabric was large and rudely con- 

 structed with dried bents, scraps of shreds, feathers, 

 and rubbish, collected about the huts on the down, 

 and contained four pale blue eggs, about the size 

 of those of the sky-lark. The other bird had de- 

 scended through the interstices of some rather large 

 loose stones, as a mouse would have done, and then 

 proceeded laterally to a hollow space in a bank 

 against which the stones were laid ; and so deep had 

 she penetrated that many of the stones had to be 

 removed before we could discover her treasure : as 

 no appearances led to any suspicion of a nest, it 

 would never have been detected but for our watch- 

 fulness. With us the wheatear stays only to hatch 

 her brood. When this is effected, and the young 

 sufficiently matured, it leaves us entirely, and by 

 the middle of September not a bird is found on 

 their summer stations. They probably retire to 

 the uplands on the sea-coasts, as we hear of them 

 as late as November in these places, where it is sup- 

 posed they find some peculiar insect food, required 

 by them in an adult state, and not found, or only 

 sparingly, in their breeding-stations, in which the 

 appropriate food of their young is probably more 

 abundant. Thus united on the coasts, they can 

 take their flight, when the wind or other circum- 

 stances favour their passage all of them departing 

 upon the approach of winter. 



Partial as I am to the habits and all the concerns 



