364 SUMMER. 



they were communicating the occurrences of the watch, 

 which, of course, they are not doing. 



The male bird, notwithstanding the strength of the 

 castle, shows a great deal of tact as well as tactics in 

 the removing of an enemy. He approaches, and chat- 

 ters, and hops, and flies this way and that way, till he 

 attracts attention ; and when he succeeds in that, 

 he practices his manoeuvres till he has wiled the 

 enemy to a considerable distance from the nest. 

 Then he starts off by a longer flight, and returns by a 

 circuitous route to the place whence he started. If fol- 

 lowed, he does not return there, but darts off laterally 

 to a considerable distance, but still keeping within 

 sight of his charge. If the locality of the nest be ap- 

 proached, he returns and performs his manoeuvres in a 

 similar manner ; and we once kept one in play in this 

 way for half an hour, in a situation where he could 

 not have had experience of many human visitors. 



The wheatear is about six inches in length, and 

 weighs three quarters of an ounce. The bill, legs, 

 and claws are black, and the tarsi very long in propor- 

 tion to the size of the bird. In the male bird, the 

 upper part is grey, the wings brownish black, the two 

 middle feathers of the tail and the tips of the others of 

 the same colour. There are also two black streaks 

 that extend from the openings of the mandibles, across 

 the eyes, to the ear covers. The neck and breast are 

 pale reddish brown, and the under part and outside 

 tail feathers, except the tips, white. The female is 

 brownish in the backhand has the stripes on the head 

 brown, with less white in the tail. 



