24 THE BIRDS OF YORKSHIRE. 



the Migration Committee, whose reports furnish abundant 

 evidence of the frequency of this bird's presence at the Light 

 stations, where it often figures amongst the casualities ; great 

 influxes have been recorded at Flamborough, both in spring 

 and autumn, and these " rushes " have taken place in nine 

 different years since 1879. 



Although not generally credited with imitative powers 

 the Wheatear has, according to Saxby (" Birds of Shetland," 

 p. 68), and Mr. J. E. Harting (Field, 2nd April 1898), been 

 known to imitate the songs of other birds, and in Yorkshire 

 it has been detected in the act of mimicing the song of a 

 Skylark, near Wilsden (E. P. Butterfield, in litt. and Field, 

 loth May 1902). 



Sometimes a curious position is chosen for the nesting 

 site where it would scarcely be suspected. Among these 

 may be mentioned one in the rough slag forming the sloping 

 front of the sea-wall opposite my house at Redcar, where 

 many people passed to and fro daily ; one in Teesdale, in a 

 hole on a hillside, whence four eggs of a Wheatear and one 

 of a Cuckoo were taken ; another in a hole in a bank over- 

 looking a stream at Adel, the hole being the nesting-place of 

 a Sand Martin (Zool. 1880, p. 301) ; and lastly, one found 

 in 1886 by Mr. R. Fortune, placed two or three feet below a 

 Peregrine's eyrie in north-west Yorkshire. 



Of variations in plumage there are several instances, 

 but it is unnecessary to cite more than the following : One 

 at Filey, with back, shoulders, neck, and top of head white, 

 here and there speckled with minute grey spots (op. cit. 1883, 

 p. 79). Near Hariogate, on i6th April 1900, Mr. K. McLean 

 saw one all white, except the shoulders, which were terra-cotta 

 coloured ; and near Settle, as Mr. F. Atkinson informs me, 

 there were, in June 1896, four albinos out of a brood of five, 

 with whitish yellow legs and feet, the hairs around the mouth 

 black, and the bills yellowish ; the feathers which are white 

 in normal examples, were brown, as also were the tips of the 

 primaries. 



This species is the object of various superstitious ideas. 



