ANIMAL ARTISANS 



CHAPTER I 



MINOR MASONS 



IF ever the Fraternity of the Ancient Order of Free- 

 masons chooses to add a crest to the many bearings 

 which it emblazons among its insignia, the claims of 

 a very remarkable little bird to that honour are worthy 

 of consideration. It is the black wheatear, which 

 crosses the Straits of Gibraltar in the spring to nest 

 among the rocks and stones of the south Spanish 

 provinces. In form it is like the well-known English 

 wheatear, but not in colour ; for though it has the 

 same alert appearance, and the broad white band 

 across the lower part of the back which makes the 

 latter so conspicuous, the rest of the plumage, instead 

 of being light grey and buff, looks as if it had been 

 dipped in the inkpot. 



The Spaniards near Malaga call this bird the pedrero, 

 or " stonemason," from its peculiar taste in nest- 

 building. The common wheatear usually builds in a 

 rabbit-hole. Several of them have nested lately in the 

 open warren in Richmond Park. The black wheatear 

 sometimes builds in a deep crevice in a cliff; but 

 more often it chooses a low excavation, or horizontal 



A 



