THE \YHEATEAR. 301 



after the bird's arrival here, either when the little songster is perched on a 

 stone or a fence, or when fluttering in the air. Sometimes he begins his 

 warbling notes on his perch, accompanying them with graceful motions 

 of the wings, and finally launching into the air to complete his song, 

 the aerial flutteriugs seeming to give his performance an additional 

 vigour. Dixon has seen " two Wheatears in the air together, buffeting 

 each other, and singing lustily all the time Avith all the sweetness that 

 love-rivalry inspires." Its song appears to be suspended early in the 

 summer, but is not unfrequently resumed in autumn. Their call-notes 

 bear some resemblance to the syllables chick-chack-chack, and have a 

 singularly piercing sound, almost like the noise produced by striking two 

 small pebbles together, which circumstance, and the bird's love for 

 stony places, have gained for them their Gaelic name, signifying the 

 " little mason." 



As the male birds precede the females a few days, and when paired do 

 not commence nest-building at once, it is usually the middle of April, 

 sometimes later, ere the nest is in course of construction. The nest of the 

 "Wheatear, from the peculiar nature of the place chosen for its site, is 

 extremely difficult to find. Far under a piece of rock, or in a crevice 

 of a huge boulder, not unfrequently in the holes of walls, or under a 

 convenient earth clod on the fallow are the usual situations chosen. It 

 will, when nesting on the sandy downs, take possession of a deserted 

 rabbit-burrow, or other suitable hole in the sandy soil, where it safely 

 rears its young, but never, so far as is known, excavates a hole for 

 itself. Two more favourite nesting-sites may be noticed. One of them is 

 amongst the stones of cairns, or even the heaps of stones lying on a pebbly 

 shore, just above high-water mark, and on the same portion of the beach 

 on which the Oyster-catcher rears its young. The other situation is rather 

 a novel one. On the desolate moors, when the peat is cut for firing-pur- 

 poses, the Wheatear, as previously noted, is a common bird. The peat- 

 blocks when dry are piled up in stacks to be used as occasion demands ; 

 and in amongst the crevices of these peat-stacks the bird finds a favourite 

 nesting-place. The nest is placed at various distances from the opening 

 that admits the parent birds ; and sometimes entrance to the nest is made 

 by several ways. Sometimes it is close to the opening of the hole; at 

 others, especially should it be in a stone heap or amongst rocks, it may be 

 several feet from the place at which the birds enter. It is a simple little 

 structure, loosely put together, and made of dry grass, occasionally a few 

 rootlets and moss, and lined with a little hair or feathers, sometimes both, 

 according to the locality in which the nest is made. Thus, when the nest is 

 near the sho? or close to the ocean itself, a few stray Gull-feathers will often 

 be found ; and should the birds be nesting near rabbit-warrens, a little fur of 

 that animal will usually be mixed with the other materials; while, yet 



