WHEATEAR. 289 



usually selects a deserted rabbit -burrow, in which it places 

 its nest at some little distance from the entrance : it is 

 composed of dried roots, intermixed with feathers, rabbits' 

 down, and other light substances ; and it generally contains 

 six pale blue eggs. The nest is easily detected by a little 

 observation, for in such situations the old birds amass a 

 considerable number of small pieces of the withered stalks 

 of the brake, Pteris aquilina, on the outside at the en- 

 trance of the burrow : by noticing this circumstance its 

 nest is sure to be discovered." I have more than once 

 found the nest in a fallow field, under a large clot, to 

 which my attention was drawn by a portion of the ma- 

 terials of which the nest was composed appearing outside 

 the hole through which the bird passed to the hollow space 

 within. The eggs are of a uniform delicate pale blue, 

 measuring ten lines and a half in length, and seven lines 

 and a half in breadth. 



The male sings prettily, but not loud, sometimes even 

 when hovering on the wing, either near his nest or his 

 partner. Mr. Sweet, in his British Warblers, says, "that 

 in confinement the Wheatear is continually in song, and 

 sings by night as well as by day : their winter song is the 

 best and the most varied." 



Whether owing to the art with which the nest of this 

 bird is mostly concealed, or placed beyond the reach of 

 danger ; whether from the great number of the parent 

 birds that breed here ; or that in autumn the numerous 

 families migrate towards the same point on our southern 

 coast from which to take their departure ; but the number 

 of these birds seen and taken every autumn in the county 

 of Sussex alone is very extraordinary. 



The extensive downs between Eastbourne and Beachy- 

 head are visited by the Wheatear from the end of July to 

 the middle of September by hundreds in daily succession. 



VOL. i. u 



