WHEATEAR. 351 



usually sold for sixpence the dozen, and Markwick, in 1798, 

 recorded his having been told that, in two August days of 

 1792, his informant, a shepherd, had taken there twenty- 

 seven dozens ; but this is a small number compared with 

 the almost incredible quantity sometimes taken, for another 

 person told the same naturalist of a shepherd who once 

 caught eighty-four dozens in one day. In Montagu's time 

 (1802) the price had risen to a shilling the dozen, and it is 

 now much higher, through the greater demand for and smaller 

 supply of the birds*. Mr. Button, in 1864, stated that 

 " where there were hundreds of dozens taken formerly, there 

 are only a few dozens taken now." It would not appear, 

 however, that the decrease is due so much to the numbers 

 caught at this season of the year as to the breaking-up and 

 bringing under tillage of thousands of acres of sheep-walk, 

 down, heath, common and warren, which were the ancient 

 nurseries in this country of this prolific species. 



The diffusion of the Wheatear during summer over the 

 British Islands is general, but it is a local bird being re- 

 stricted, in the breeding season at least, to the tracts of open 

 country which, as just mentioned, are yearly diminishing 

 in extent. It visits the Faeroes and Iceland in some abun- 

 dance, and has been known since the time of Otho Fabricius 

 to occur in Greenland, where it breeds. From this inhos- 

 pitable country it occasionally strays even further westward, 

 and one was noticed, May 2nd, 1830, by Sir J. C. Ross flying 

 round his ship in Felix Harbour, lat. 70 N. and long. 91 

 53' W., but was next morning found dead alongside. From 

 Greenland also, many Wheatears on their southward migra- 

 tion seem to take too westerly a course, and, as Prof. Baird 

 states, of late years the species has frequently been detected 

 in the eastern portions of North America, but not further 

 south than New York. He suggests that it may possibly 

 breed in Labrador or Newfoundland, but Mr. Eeeks did not 

 observe it during his stay in the latter. It also occurs occa- 

 sionally in the Bermudas, as recorded by Major Wedderburn, 



* During the meeting of the British Association at Brighton in August, 1872, 

 M'heatears were sold by the poulterers for three shillings and sixpence the dozen. 



