" The Wheatear may always be easily distinguished by its habit of perching on the top of a stone 



wall, rock, or other eminence." 



THE WHEATEAR 



T 



HE Wheatear is one of the 

 commonest and, in some 

 respects, the most interest- 

 ing of our summer visitors. 

 Arriving in the south and 

 east of England in March, it 

 quickly finds its way to its 

 favourite breeding quarters 

 on dry barren heaths, and desolate 

 treeless wastes, from which it retreats 

 again in a southerly direction during 

 August and September. 



Whilst undertaking its long and 

 hazardous migratory nights across the 

 ocean it sometimes loses its bearings and 

 wanders too far west. Some years ago, 

 whilst returning from New York in the 

 early part of May, I was surprised to see 

 a male Wheatear alight on the ship when 

 we were some three hundred miles west 



of the Irish coast, and my friend Mr. 

 Richard Ussher records an instance of 

 two birds of this species doing a similar 

 thing in about the same longitude on 

 a western-bound boat, which they accom- 

 panied all the way to America. 



The Wheatear may always be easily 

 distinguished by its habit of perching on 

 the top of a stone wall, rock, or other 

 eminence, and, when disturbed, flying off 

 with a great display of white rump, and 

 alighting again at no great distance in 

 front of the observer. Its call note, 

 which is very characteristic and fre- 

 quently uttered, sounds very like the 

 words chick- chock- chock. The male has 

 a short but rather pre.tty song, which is 

 generally utterred whilst he is fluttering 

 in the air. It is of such a weak 

 character, however, that it is hardly 



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