THE WHEATEAR 197 



agricultural districts in the Midlands, the mountains of 

 Scotland. The old hole of a Sand-martin in a railway 

 cutting, a crevice in a stone wall, the lee side of a 

 boulder stone, or merely the shelter of a clod of earth 

 in a fallow field serves his purpose. As regards a 

 nesting site, the Wheatear is exceedingly adaptable, 

 suiting himself to the locality. And so the popular 

 names given to this bird seem often misleading to a 

 student of its life-history. In the Southern counties as 

 the " Fallow Chat " it is best known, in Lancashire 

 and Derbyshire it is " Walltack," " Stonecheek," 

 " Stone-smack," or "Smutch " : and this in Stafford- 

 shire is " Stone Smasher." But tack and cheek and 

 smutch all come from the bird's sharp note " Chack, 

 chack!" uttered as it flits from stone to stone on high 

 land or along the wind-swept downs and warrens. 



Steinschmatzer is the German name for the Wheatear ; 

 so the Lancashire name of Stonesmatch is decidedly 

 Saxon. Schmatzen is to kiss heartily to give a good 

 smack in fact. The French name for this bird, Traquet, 

 was given because of the continual movement of the 

 wings and tail, which is compared to the traquet, or 

 clapper of mills, which is kept in motion by the wind or 

 by the water. 



All works on natural history describe the beautiful 

 Wheatear as always wary and shy to a degree, and 

 chiefly, as we have already said, to be found on warrens 

 and poor lands near the coast, but as being especially 

 plentiful about our South Downs. In other districts, 

 too, it frequents the open ground and rough hillocky 

 pastures. But who would look for the Wheatear 

 amongst the old slag-heaps, in the very heart of the 



