NATURE AND SPORT IN BRITAIN 



Away on the sea-wall of pebble yonder are a pair of 

 brisk, alert wheatears, not long since arrived from the 

 South and East — Egypt, Arabia, or Asia Minor. Wheat- 

 ears always seem to me to be among the most cheerful 

 of our feathered friends — a trifle fussy and fidgety, it 

 is true, but apparently always in high spirits and upon 

 good terms with themselves. A relative of our English 

 wheatear, the imitative wheatear — the schaapnoachter 

 (shepherd) of the Boers of South Africa — is a great 

 and deserved favourite in Cape Colony, where, close 

 to the solitary farmhouse, perched on an anthill or some 

 similar elevation, he pours forth his sweet, cheerful 

 song and mimics — for he is a vastly imitative little 

 fellow — all sorts of farmyard sounds — dogs barking, 

 hens clucking, and so on. Like the English wheatear, 

 as he flits hither and thither, he is constantly displaying 

 the snow-white rump patch which distinguishes both 

 these birds. Both species seem to be peculiarly tolerant 

 of mankind. Our English bird never retreats very far 

 away from anyone, and in South Africa, during one 

 of the hard-fought battles of the Natal campaign, a 

 schaapwachter was to be observed singing stoutly on 

 his anthill and flitting hither and thither close to some 

 of our troops, even amid the roar of a general action. 



Two or three hundred yards behind the low, natural 

 sea-wall, amid some straggling patches of briar and 

 bush, which have acquired foothold here, you may 

 hear the clear, delicious, liquid note of nightingales, 

 which sing here during any hour of the day. These 

 birds have been coming over for the last fortnight. 

 This is a favourite resting-place of theirs, after their 

 long flight across the sea, and from the middle of April 

 one may be always certain of hearing and seeing one 

 or two of them in this quiet spot. Occasionally, 

 nightingales, like all other migrating birds, however 



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