4174 The Zoologist — October, 1874. 



in the hope of seeing young redwings British born being frustrated. One 

 of the eggs then taken is on the table as I write, together with the minutely 

 detailed record in the pages of my brother's note-book for the year alluded to. 

 I well remember the anxious care taken to guard the birds from intrusion, 

 and the deep interest felt in the unprecedented occurrence by the old 

 shepherd and the few others who were in the secret. — Ed.]" — P. 64. 



The song of the wheatear, or " wheat-rumped stonechat," as 

 Macgillivray is pleased lo call it, is described by that erudite, 

 indefatigable and fanciful inventor of new names, as " a short, 

 lively, and pleasantly modulated warble, which it performs some- 

 limes when perched on a rock, wall or turf, but more frequently 

 while hovering at a small height in the air, and often in the midst 

 of its short flights when pursued or disturbed." — Vol. ii. p. 293. 

 Sweet says that in confinement " the wheatear is continually in 

 song, by night as well as by day, and that its winter song is best 

 and most varied;" and Mr. Yarrell observes, in addition, that 

 " the male sings prettily, but not loud, often when hovering on the 

 wing either near his nest or his partner." This, however, seems 

 little more than a copy of Macgillivray ; indeed Yarrell's work is 

 remarkably bald as regards the song of birds, and he seems to have 

 had a practical acquaintance with very few. 



Dr. Saxby regards the " steinklc," or wheatear, with great favour, 

 and tells us of one of its accomplishments, that of a mimic, which 

 is new to me : this I attribute rather to want of attention, or I should 

 undoubtedly have been able to have borne my testimony also to 

 the excellence of its mimetic powers, for I have often, as I supposed, 

 heard the familiar wail of the peewit mixed with the peep, chuck, 

 chack of the wheatear, wherever the latter is most abundant, and 

 have taken the mimic for the mimicked, for whom I have often 

 looked in vain. The wheatear is a bird I dearly love, and the very 

 sight of its efligy in Yarrell reminds me of the breezy downs which 

 are its favourite haunts. In Shetland it is a regular and extremely 

 abundant visitor; it arrives in Ajnil, and remains until the beginning 

 of October; the male comes first, and after a few days the female, 

 at first sparingly, but in a ievf hours the hills and valleys are covered 

 with them as if by magic. But now for its vocal powers: — 



"Having recently made a careful search in the whole of my small 

 collection of ornithological books, I am greatly perplexed to find that 

 although frequent mention occurs of the song itself no allusion whatever 

 is made to the marvellous power possessed by the wheatear of imitating the 



