WHEATEAR. 277 



THE WHEATEAR, or Fallowchat, as it is sometimes 

 called, is another summer visitor allied to the Stonechat 

 and Whinchat, which generally makes its appearance from 

 the southward about the middle of March, and is one 

 of the earliest among those birds which seek to pass the 

 season of reproduction far to the north of their winter- 

 quarters. 



In reference to their appearance in spring, Mr. Couch, 

 who resides on the coast of Cornwall, remarks that " tlie 

 Wheatear reaches our shores so early in the morning as 

 to prove that it must have taken flight from the French 

 coast long before daybreak. Few come after nine o'clock 

 in the morning, and none after twelve. They sometimes 

 perch on our fishing-boats, at two or three leagues from 

 land, in an almost exhausted state. They do not cross the 

 Channel every day ; and as it usually happens that our 

 own residents are not the first to arrive, it is common for 

 them to abound in a morning ; but in the afternoon, and 

 for a day or two after, for not one to be seen. My own 

 observations do not confirm the remark, that one sex ma- 

 terially precedes the other : they rather appear to arrive 

 indiscriminately. Through the summer, the Wheatear is 

 a common bird along our coasts, on the slopes fronting the 

 sea, somewhat above the bare uncovered rocks. On the 

 least alarm, they flit over the precipice, and take refuge in 

 some place of shelter." 



These birds, arriving in numbers probably along the 

 whole line of our southern coast, soon disperse themselves 

 over the downs, warrens, and fallow lands, some of them 

 seeking for a time very high northern latitudes, to be here- 

 after enumerated. 



The Wheatear feeds principally on worms, and various 

 insects, some of which are taken on the wing, the bird re- 



