208 NATURAL HISTORY 



engaged in incubation, while the young are concealed 

 by the leaves ? 



any sort of fruit or berry; but bread and milk, bruised herapseed and 

 bread, with bits of fresh lean meat cut very small and mixed up in it, 

 should be its general food. It is also very fond of the yolk of an egg 

 boiled hard, and crumbled small, or stirred up with the point of a knife 

 that it may peck it out of the shell as it likes. Sometimes they are apt to 

 go off their other food, and will live on egg several days. At such times, 

 if a few flies could be procured for them it would be the most likely 

 means to restore them to their appetite. 



In the cages of all the birds already mentioned, I generally keep a pan 

 of water, that they may wash when they please, which they are very 

 fond of doing: but the present, like the reed and sedge warblers and the 

 whitethroat, should not be allowed to wash much in winter, or they will 

 kill themselves with it. A little cup just large enough for them to get 

 their head in filled with water is sufficient in the winter season, but they 

 may be allowed to wash frequently in summer. 



The Wheatear, (Saxicola (Enanthe, BECHST.) The present interesting 

 species generally arrives in this country about the middle of March, and 

 mostly leaves it again the latter end of September or the beginning of 

 October; I, one year, saw a pair in Hyde Park as late as the 17th of 

 November. In a wild state they are generally to be found on downs and 

 commons, and in Sussex some hundred dozens are caught annually by 

 the shepherds, who sell them for the sake of their flesh, which is very 

 delicious, particularly in autumn, when they become very fat. 



This is a very interesting bird in confinement, and is almost continually 

 singing; it will also sing by night, as well as by day, if there is a light 

 in the room where it is kept : it has a very pleasant, variable, agreeable 

 song, different from all other birds, which, in confinement, it continues 

 all the winter. When a pair of them are kept together in a large cage 

 or aviary it is very amusing to see them at play with each other, flying 

 up and down, and spreading open their long wings in a curious manner, 

 dancing and singing at the same time. I have very little doubt but a 

 young bird, brought up from the nest, might be taught to talk, as they are 

 very imitative. 



When wild, the present species feeds entirely on insects, so that the 

 more it has given it when in confinement the better : there are very few 

 sorts that it will refuse ; small beetles, cockroaches, crickets, grasshop- 

 pers, most sorts of caterpillars, butterflies, moths, earwigs, woodlice, the 

 common maggots, and almost all other sorts of insects, it is very fond of, 

 and the more that is given it, the finer will be its song. Its common food 

 is bruised hempseed and bread, intermixed with fresh, raw, lean meat, as 

 mentioned in the general observations, to be the general food of the \\ hole 

 tribe ; also a little of the yolk of an egg boiled hard occasionally for a 

 change. 



The Whin Chat, (Saxicola Rubetra, BECHST.) This pretty species is 

 known by the name of furze chat and whin chat, and is also often con- 

 founded with the stone chat, which is a very different species. It gene- 



