332 THE THRUSH FAMILY 



differs conspicuously from that of the adult. The head has indistinct, greyish 

 striations on a chocolate ground, while the back is of a greyish brown. The wings 

 resemble those of the adult in autumn. The throat and fore-breast are buff, each 

 feather tipped brown to form indistinct transverse bars ; the lower breast and 

 abdomen are fawn-coloured. Full-grown young are greyer above, and have 

 indistinct striations, and crescentic bars on the scapulars and interscapulars. The 

 throat is buff-white, while the fore-breast is buff, relieved by more or less con- 

 spicuous dusky bars. The flanks, mid-breast, and abdomen are pale buff. After 

 the autumn moult the crown and back are of a rufous chocolate, intermingled for 

 some time with the grey striated feathers of the earlier plumage, [w. P. P.] 



2. Distribution. The species is generally distributed over the whole of 

 Europe and Northern Asia in suitable localities. Two forms visit the British Isles, 

 the ordinary continental race, S. oenanthe oenanthe (L.), which breeds with us, and 

 the Greenland race, S. oenanthe leucorhoa, which passes on migration. In the British 

 Isles the wheatear avoids well-wooded districts, and is found on bare, open downs, 

 sandy warrens, and stony hillsides, but is somewhat local, and is altogether absent 

 from many districts. [F. c. B. J.] 



3. Migration. Apart from occasional exceptional occurrences, the wheat- 

 ear is a summer visitor and a bird of passage in the British Isles. It appears 

 early in March. Some remain till late October, but March, April and September 

 are the months of the chief movements. The recent researches of a special com- 

 mittee of the British Ornithologists' Club have elicited some details regarding the 

 spring immigration into England and Wales. This takes place " along the whole 

 of the south coast, but first and chiefly on the western half," in a series of successive 

 " waves," which quickly spread inland. Some half-dozen such waves are noted 

 each season between mid-March and mid-May. At first they consist of our own 

 breeding birds, but later they become mixed, and finally the last two waves or so 

 are composed entirely of members of the larger race, S. cenanthe leucorhoa, which 

 is merely a bird of passage in our area. These last waves reach only the eastern 

 half of the south coast, and the birds evidently merely cross the south-east of 

 England in a north-easterly direction. (See further B. 0. C. Migration Reports, i. 

 pp. 20-24; ii. pp. 32-40 ; iii. pp. 40-45 ; and iv. pp. 45-52.) Among our own wheat- 

 ears the males appear a fortnight before the females (cf. Ticehurst, B. of Kent, 

 1909, pp. 15-18). Return movements begin in August, but have not yet been 

 fully studied. The species is a nocturnal migrant, and travels in small parties. A 

 gentleman " going to Canada, in August 1883, observed two wheatears come on board 



