AN ARTFUL BUILDER. 81 



the earliest of our summer visitants, and is generally dis- 

 persed through the country, betaking itself to sandy downs, 

 pastures, and stony slopes ; hence its name, Fallow- chat. 

 Knapp remarks : 



I have seen the Wheatear with nesting materials in its bill, and 

 have had its eggs, though rarely, brought to me. It is remarkable 

 that during the breeding season, notwithstanding its numbers, and 

 the little concealment which its haunts afford, how rarely its nests 

 are found. Its principal place of resort is the South Downs, in 

 Sussex ; and it appears from the accounts of the most experienced 

 and credible persons of that county, from whom I have my in- 

 formation, that the females are performing their duties of incubation 

 during the month of March ; so that at that time scarcely any but 

 male birds are visible, of which hundreds are flying about ; while 

 the females, with their families, appear early in May, and are cap- 

 tured afterwards in great numbers : yet the oldest shepherds have 

 seldom seen their nest ! But, in fact, no bird conceals its nest with 

 more artifice than the Wheatear ; and in consequence of this circum- 

 stance, and the retired places in which it fixes its summer residence, 

 very many of the young ones are produced. This summer (June 

 15, 1828) I appointed a boy to watch two hen birds to their retreat, 

 and after some hours of vigilance he succeeded, and gave me notice ; 

 one had made her nest deep in the crevice of a stone quarry, so 

 carefully hidden by projecting fragments as not to be observed from 

 without, until part of the rock was removed : her fabric was large, 

 and rudely constructed 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 Skylark. The 

 other bird had descended 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 appear- 

 ances led to any suspicion of a nest, it would never have been 

 detected but for our watchfulness. 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 in their summer stations. They pro- 

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

 late as November in these places, where it is supposed 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 circumstances favour their passage, all of them depart- 

 ing upon the approach of winter. 



