NATURE AND SPORT IN BRITAIN 



autumn migration, the birds were at their best and 

 fattest. 



In Cromwell's time Squire Wilson, Lord of the Manor 

 of Eastbourne, was suspected of being in communica- 

 tion with the Royalists, and a lieutenant with a troop of 

 horse was suddenly sent to arrest him and search his 

 house. The squire was upstairs ill of the gout, and his 

 sharp-witted spouse set down the lieutenant and his 

 men to a choice repast, in which a huge wheatear pie 

 figured conspicuously. While they were engaged on 

 this and other good things, the squire upstairs had 

 time to burn his papers, and so, thanks to the ex- 

 cellence of the wheatear pie, escaped any unpleasant 

 consequences. 



Wheatears at the present day are certainly far less 

 common than they used to be on the South Downs ; it 

 is possible that the Wild Birds Protection Acts, which 

 have during the last few years put an end to the old 

 custom of trapping, may have some effect in restoring 

 their numbers. I believe, however, that a change of 

 migration has taken place during the last seventy years, 

 and these birds are now probably much more numerous 

 than they used to be in some other parts of Europe. 

 The wheatear is decidedly an imitative bird. It has a 

 pleasant little song of its own, but it will occasionally 

 mimic the lark and other birds. All the wheatears 

 certainly have distinct tendencies towards the art of the 

 mime ; I have already mentioned the schaapwachter of 

 the Boers of South Africa ; another Cape species, 

 Saxicola hifasciata^ is also a great imitator of birds and 

 beasts. 



The whinchat usually reappears on the downs 

 towards the end of the first week in April. The early 

 part of the spring of 1903 being a very mild and a very 

 forward one, the forerunners were somewhat earlier, and 



296 



