152 Silviadoc. 



says it seldom arrives in the marshes of his neighbourhood m 

 March, but very regularly during the first week in April ; but it 

 does not nest there, merely passing on and returning for a short 

 time in September. With us it breeds in a deserted rabbit- 

 burrow, or some deep hole under the turf, where I have occa- 

 sionally found its eggs. Though pretty generally dispersed over 

 the Wiltshire downs, I do not think it could ever have been so 

 numerous with us as it is, or was, on the Southdowns of Sussex, 

 where vast quantities were trapped by the shepherds for the 

 London markets, and found a ready sale, as the morsel of 

 meat they yielded was, unhappily for them, considered an 

 epicure's delicacy. Pennant speaks of 1,840 dozen being taken 

 in one year near Eastbourne, in Sussex ; and 84 dozen are 

 said to have been trapped by a single shepherd in one 

 day! Would not any species be thinned by such wholesale 

 destruction ? 



As we have seen the Stonechat to be dubbed by Wiltshire 

 rustics the ' Horse Matcher/ so the late Rev. G. Marsh used to 

 say this species was called in Wiltshire the ' Horse Snatcher / but 

 he did not know the reason of the term, and the name was quite 

 new to me. ' Fallowchat' is another provincial name, the meaning 

 of which is apparent enough ; for, unlike its two congeners above 

 mentioned, this species avoids bushes and shrubs, and seeks the 

 open field or down. The scientific name, (Enantke, is attributed 

 by the Committee of the B.O.U. to the appearance of the bird in 

 its spring migration at the season when the vine shoots;* but 

 the meaning of the English ' Wheatear' has been much ques- 

 tioned. Mr. Harting says that perhaps it is a corruption of 

 whitear, from the ' white ear,' which is very conspicuous in the 

 spring-plumage of this bird ; or else it may be derived from the 

 season of its arrival. The latter is, I think, the true origin ; but 

 then I submit that it cannot allude to the wheat being in ear 

 when it reaches us in the middle of March, but must refer to 

 the old meaning of ear, ' to plough/ and unquestionably the 

 Wheatear does arrive when the ploughing and sowing of spring- 

 * Aristotle, ' Hist. An.,' ix. 49, B. 8. 



