WHEATEARS 15 



to be wholly unknown to me for they were the first and 

 last of the kind that I ever saw in the open but from 

 careful notes made on the spot as to their markings, I was 

 afterwards able to identify them as desert wheatears ; the 

 black tail, throat, and buff head marked them for every one 

 as desert wheatears. These birds were not so plump as 

 the common wheatear, but more graceful, and stood up 

 more straightly. They walked differently too more like a 

 robin. 



Howbeit, as we returned over the dunes in the roar of 

 the fresh sparkling sea, noting the footprints of rat and 

 rabbit, and the dung and spoor of partridges, who dearly 

 love the sandhills, we saw some of the common wheat- 

 ears on the beach, feeding upon insects ; and as we walked 

 home across the marshes, now turning emerald, we passed 

 single wheatears standing by the marsh dikes or feeding 

 upon the marsh-walls, flying up safely out of reach, and 

 calling with a peculiar note, jerking their tails at the same 

 time. 



Though never numerous, you may nearly any time during 

 the summer see a pair or two of common wheatears as you 

 walk over the marshlands or by the sea, where I have seen 

 them flying from stone to stone. 



At that season, too, you may see a hawk chase them, but 

 never have I seen a hawk cut them down, nor yet have I 

 ever found a nest. One old fenman tells me he has found 

 their nests on the warren in a rabbit's hole, also by a dike in 

 an old rat-hole ; but that was many years ago. 



Nevertheless, I am inclined to think they nest in the Broad- 

 lands, one sees them about so often and so long, though I 

 must say I have never seen any very young birds. 



They are rather mysterious birds, for although you see 

 them flicker across the landscape or start from a dike where 

 the bottom-fyers have recently been working, yet they do 

 not let one see much of their lives not even the " coney- 

 sucking" with which they are accredited. In truth, the 



