THE WHEATEAR 403 



same week, and in due time both broods were fledged. Although one 

 brood left the nest somewhat earlier than the other, it remained in 

 the immediate neighbourhood long afterwards, accompanied by the 

 parents, which fed them industriously for at least twenty hours out of 

 the twenty-four. The younger brood soon rejoined their neighbours, 

 and at about eleven o'clock every night the whole party, numbering 

 sixteen, retired to crevices beneath the large stones ; at least I sup- 

 pose so, for although I was never able to discover the young birds in 

 their retreat, the slightest noise was sufficient to call forth the old 

 ones. But after this had occurred three or four times, they were 

 never to be taken by surprise, and were always to be seen flitting 

 restlessly about as soon as I approached sufficiently near to distinguish 

 them. Both ends of the tunnel were used for the purposes of entrance 

 and exit, but I had no means of ascertaining whether each pair of 

 birds kept to its own nest" 1 



A lady told me she found twenty-seven nests in Wales during the 

 summer of 1908, each of which had two upright stalks of bracken before 

 the entrance. One would like to know the origin of this curious habit, 

 and also why the wheatear, unlike the Chats, should choose a tunnel in 

 which to rear its young, rather than the open ground. Perhaps the 

 bracken-stalks are explained by the fact that birds like a good land- 

 mark near the nest. Yellow wagtails, whinchats, corn-buntings, when 

 nesting in meadows, generally choose a spot near some prominent 

 plant which catches the eye and also provides a perch. In colour the 

 female closely resembles the rabbit whose fur she uses to line her nest ; 

 and in both sexes the white rump, visible only whilst flying, or when 

 displaying the tail, is curiously like the white " scut " of a rabbit. 



As a rule both birds assist in building the nest, but sometimes the 

 hen does most of this work, while her mate merely accompanies her to 

 and fro, as if his protecting presence were indispensable. Both birds 

 take turns in incubating and also in feeding the young, but if a camera 

 has to be faced, I have always found the female the more courageous, 



1 Saxby, Birds of Shetland, p. 71. 



