CLASS II. AVES: ORDER 2. PASSERES. 



143 



THE WHEAT-EAR. 



September. It is six and a half inches long; the npper parts fine light gray ; beneath pale buiFy- 

 white. It frequently makes its nest in old walls, or in the recesses of rocks. This consists of dry 

 grass, shreds, feathers, and rubbish. The eggs are five or six in number, and of a delicate pale 

 blue. The male has a gentle and pleasing song. Immense numbers of this bird are taken by 

 the shepherds on the downs along the southern coast of England toward the close of summer. 

 One person has been known to capture eighty-four dozen in a day ! The mode in which 

 they are taken is singular from its simplicity. A chamber is formed by cutting out an oblong 

 piece of turf, which is then laid over the hole formed in the opposite direction, so as to be 

 supported by its ends, and two passages are also cut in the turf leading into the chamber. 

 Through these the birds run for shelter at the least alarm ; but in the middle of the chamber 

 a small, upright stick is placed, supporting two running loops of horse-hair, so arranged that 

 it is almost impossible for a bird to pass through the chamber without getting his neck into one 

 of the nooses. Tliis species is found in Greenland, and probably in North America, being called 

 the American Stone-Chat, aS^. ocnanthoides, by Cassin. 



Genus PHG^NICURA : Phamicura. — This includes the Redstart. P. raticUla, a summer 

 visitor to Europe, five and a half inches long, lead-gray above, beneath pale chestnut. It is a 

 sweet and indefatigable singer, and may be heard as late as ten o'clock at night, and as early as 

 three in the morning. The skirts of woods, lanes and meadow hedgerows, orchards, gardens, the 

 old ivied wall of a ruin, are all favorite liaunts. The male shows himself, as if proud of his pretty 

 plumage, while he is uttering his soft, sweet song, vibrating his tail the while, on some low brancli 

 of a tree, or weather-beaten stone, nor does his music cease as he flies to another station to con- 

 tinue his strain. A crevice in a wall, a hollow tree, a nook in a building, or sometimes a hole in 

 the ground, receives the nest, the outside of which is rough and rich with moss, and lined witli 

 hair and feathers. Four, six, and even eight greenish-blue eggs are deposited, and the first brood, 

 for there are generally two in a season, are frequently fledged by the second week in June. The 



