348 SYLVimi :. 



by the end of September, and from some parts of it at least 

 a month earlier, but stragglers occasionally remain a little 

 longer, and Sweet has recorded his observation of a pair in 

 Hyde Park, November 17th, 1822. 



In reference to its arrival in spring, the late Mr. Jonathan 

 Couch remarks that in Cornwall " the Wheatear reaches our 

 coast 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." 

 This observer does not think that the cock-birds precede the 

 hens, as has generally been remarked of this and other mi- 

 gratory species, but he was, perhaps, misled by the fact that 

 the Wheatear on reaching this country, has often not put off 

 its winter-dress, which, as will presently be explained, is 

 very similar in either sex. 



These birds, arriving in numbers along the whole line of 

 our southern and eastern coasts, 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. They feed on grubs and various insects, 

 some of which are taken on the wing, the bird returning to 

 its former position on the turf or the top of a stone, but 

 seldom alighting on a bush or twig. The lively gesticula- 

 tions, no less than the delicate colouring of this bird, make 

 it a welcome denizen of what remains to us of open country 

 in England*. 



The Wheatear begins to make its nest in the southern 



* If the old saying "No May without a Wheatear" refers, as has been 

 thought, to the bird, it is without point, for we have the bird with us every 

 year from March to September. On the other hand, the wheat-plant no doubt 

 comes into ear in the month of May, especially according to the Old Style of 

 reckoning, sufficiently often to give rise to the adage. 



