WHEATEAR. 281 



about Eastbourne amounted annually to about 1840 dozen. 

 It is not unusual, however, for a shepherd and his lad to 

 look after from five hundred to seven hundred of these 

 traps. They are opened every year about St. James's 

 Day, the 25th of July, and are all in operation by the 1st 

 of August. The birds arrive by hundreds in daily suc- 

 cession, but not in flocks, for the next six or seven weeks, 

 probably depending on the distance northward at which 

 they have been reared. The season for catching is con- 

 cluded about the end of the third week in September, after 

 which very few birds are observed to pass. Stragglers are 

 occasionally seen later in the year. Mr. Sweet "observed 

 a pair on the 17th of November 1822, near the gravel-pit 

 in Hyde Park, which were quite lively, and flying about 

 after insects as brisk as if it had been the middle of 

 summer." 



The diffusion of the Wheatear during summer over Eng- 

 land, Wales, Ireland, and Scotland is general ; it visits also 

 the Hebrides, and the islands of Orkney and Shetland. It 

 arrives in Denmark and Sweden about the middle of 

 April ; Mr. Hewitson saw numbers in Norway ; and Lin- 

 neus observed it in Lapland. The extreme northern range 

 of this apparently delicate bird is very extensive. It visits 

 the Faroe Islands and Iceland. Captain Sabine, in his 

 Memoir on the Birds of Greenland, says, " This species 

 was not seen on the shores of Greenland, on which we 

 landed; but on our return homewards in October 1818, off 

 Cape Farewell, a few were seen at a distance from the 

 land, doubtless on their passage southward. In our out- 

 ward voyage, in May, we also met with them in latitude 

 60 N. and longitude 13 W., then most probably migrat- 

 ing northward." In high latitudes, this little bird does 

 not breed till June ; and it has been seen on the shores of 



