BIRDS 3 NESTS. 163 



appears, intermixed with the first feathers, in 

 irregular patches. 



WHEATEAE. Saxicola (Enanthe. 

 PLATE XI. FIG. 2. 



THE Wheatear is a bird of local occurrence, 

 confining itself principally to downs and com- 

 mons, especially in the vicinity of the sea. On 

 the rocky coast, it conceals its nest in the 

 bottom of a deep recess in a cliff. Inland it 

 makes its nest in old walls, or in pits from 

 which stone, gravel, sand, or chalk have been 

 dug out. A deserted rabbit-burrow is a 

 favourite locality, and it is said it may fre- 

 quently be detected in such situations by a 

 heap of small pieces of the withered stalks of 

 the brake -fern, made on the outside of the 

 burrow. The nest is often concealed with 

 much art; and at other times it is placed, 

 without much attempt at concealment, under 

 a clod in a fallow field. It is constructed 

 of dried bents, light twigs, intermixed with 



M2 



