THE WHEATEAR (STONE-SMATCH) II 



near the sea are the favourite resort of this lively bird, to which 

 it repairs from its transmarine winter quarters towards the second 

 week of March. Here it may be seen for several weeks flitting from 

 rock to rock, and occasionally soaring to the^height of about twenty 

 yards into the air, warbling from time to time its pleasant song, 

 now aloft, and now restlessly perched on a rock, or bank, or low stone 

 wall, calling chack-chack — and making itself all the more welcome 

 that few others among our summer visitants have as yet recovered 

 their voices. We need not suppose that Wheatears prolong their stay 

 on the coast in order to rest after their voyage. More probably 

 they make marine insects (for these are abundant even in early 

 spring) the principal portion of their food, and are taught, by the 

 same instinct which guided them across the sea, to remain where 

 their wants will be fully supplied until land insects have emerged 

 from their winter quarters. As the season advances many of 

 them proceed inland, and repair' to barren districts, whether moun- 

 tainous or lowland, where they may enjoy a considerable expanse 

 without any great admixture of trees. A wide common studded 

 with blocks of stone, a rabbit-warren or sloping upland, is likely 

 to be more or less thickly peopled by these shy birds. Shy we 

 term them, because, disposed as they are to be social among them- 

 selves (especially in spring and autumn), they are with respect 

 to other birds most exclusive. Travelling through the waste lands 

 of England, one may sometimes go on for miles and see no winged 

 creatures but an occasional Wheatear, which, with dipping flight, 

 made conspicuous by the snow-white spot at the base of its tail, 

 shoots ahead of us some thirty or forty yards, alights on a stone, 

 and, after a few uneasy upward and downward movements of 

 its tail, starts off again to repeat the same manoeuvre, until we 

 begin to wonder what tempts it to stray away so far from home. 

 It does not ordinarily sing during these excursions, but utters its 

 occasional note, very different from its spring song. It builds 

 its nest of grass, moss, and leaves, and lines it with hair or wool, 

 selecting some very secret spot on the ground, a deserted rabbit- 

 burrow or cavity under a rock, where, beyond the reach of any 

 but the most cunning marauder, it lays five or six eggs. Early in 

 August, when the young are fully fledged, the scattered colonies 

 of Wheatears assemble for emigration on open downs near the 

 sea. We have seen a good many of them on the sandy coast of 

 Norfolk and of North Hales ; but it is on the extensive downs of 

 Sussex that they collect in the largest numbers, not in flocks, but 

 in parties of six or eight ; each party perhaps constituting a family. 

 They here retain their shy habits of flying off at the approach of 

 a human being, and are often seen to drop suddenly, where they 

 may remain concealed from sight behind a stone, furze-bush or 

 bank. The shepherds and others, whose vocation lies on the 

 downs, used to take advantage of the habit of these birds to con- 



