103 



THE WHEAT-EAR. 



Saxicola oenanthe. BECHSTEIN. 

 PLATE V. 



Saxicola oenanthe, Bechstein. Motacilla cenanthe, Linn* 

 Sylvia oenanthe, Lath. Vitaflora oenanthe, Steph. 

 Provincially Wheat-ear, Fallowsmith, White-tail, or 

 White-rump. 



THIS clean, and to the ornithologist, interesting 

 bird, is one of our earliest summer visitants, some- 

 times appearing even when the ground is whitened 

 with the last snow showers of spring. It is a 

 common species, and extends from the Land's 

 End to Cape Wrath, reaching northward to the 

 Hebrides. It abounds in the downs arid warrens 

 of the south, on the lower ranges of sea coast 

 around our islands, and in nearly all the pastoral 

 districts of Scotland. In the latter it arrives in 

 the first week of March, and spends the breeding 

 season, flitting from stone to stone, from one 

 rising ground to another, or in a district where 

 stone walls form the enclosures, flitting before 

 the traveller, and appearing to fall, as it were, on 

 the opposite side of the wall, when starting to 

 resume its flight. It breeds in holes, under and 

 among rocks and stones, in the burrows of rabbits, 

 even occasionally in those scraped by the Sand 



