WHEATEAR 



Saxicola cziianthe 



HE Wheatear is a common and widely distributed summer 

 visitor to the British Islands. It is one of the first migrants 

 to arrive in spring, often before the snow is off the ground. 

 Its breeding-haunts are, as a rule, confined to the- wild 

 moorland districts and waste ground. In England it is 

 not a common bird in the southern and western counties, 

 but becomes more widely distributed north of Derbyshire. 

 In Scotland it is one of the commonest birds to be met with, especially in 

 the wilder districts, and breeds in most of the outlying islands, including the 

 Orkneys, Shetlands, and the Outer Hebrides. It is also found in all suitable 

 localities in Ireland. 



The summer haunts of the \Yheatear are among the wildest and most 

 picturesque districts in our Islands. Hardly any place is too bleak or too 

 wild for the Wheatear. On the waste ground near the coast, whether it be 

 sandy links, gravelly beach, or rocky cliffs, the Wheatear is there. It is just 

 as common a bird in the wildest parts of the Highlands far up the glen, 

 where the track winds round the shore of some lonely loch as on the 

 shoulders of the grassy Lowland hills, where it may be seen perched on some 

 isolated stone uttering its cheery ' chick-chack-chack' Even the wildest 

 islands on the west coast are usually occupied by pairs of these birds. The 

 Wheatear is commonly to be seen on the walls and stones Or fences along the 

 roadside, where the track crosses some barer part of the moor or waste 

 ground. He is not easily mistaken, with his grey white and black plumage 

 and his cheery call, and his mate is usually not far off. As you come along 

 he flies away a short distance before you, and alights again on some stone or 

 fence post. Its flight is somewhat jerky and taken by fits and starts, and it 

 usually jerks its tail once or twice as it alights, ever)' now and then making 

 VOL. ii. o 53 



