98 BU8SET WHEATEAB. 



and lizards, are of one uniform isabelline or saiid-colour." — ^^Ibis," 

 vol. i., p. 430. 



This beautiful adaptation of colour, so important as a protection 

 against their enemies, is, in my opinion, jDroduced in these animals 

 principally by means of the food. When colour is owing to the 

 deposit of pigment, it is clear that this pigment must exist in the 

 organic productions by which the animals are surrounded, for it 

 produces the same colour in them. In the humming bird, which 

 feeds on the nectar of flowers, which being hidden requires no colour- 

 pigment, the hue of the plumage is owing to a peculiar sculpturing 

 of the ultimate ramule of the colourless feather. 



About March, says Count Miihle, after every fresh storm, bands 

 of new arrivals of S. stapazina may be observed in Greece. They 

 soon scatter themselves among the rocky hills, where they move about 

 restlessly among Emheriza ccesia, Surnia noctua, and Turdus cyanus. 

 They always seem angry without there being any cause of alarm, and 

 are constantly snapping and pecking one another, although they live 

 at peace with other birds. 



They are very shy and circumspect, and build their nests in the 

 holes of rocks, singly. The nest is made of the blades of grass and 

 the down of grass flowers, and generally contains five eggs, sea-green, 

 sprinkled sparingly with pale-coloured spots. 



Salvadori ("Fauna d^Italia,") remarks that Saxicola stapazina arrives 

 at the same time as the other species, and has the same habits, and 

 is not common. I have observed it occasionally in the Campagna 

 Romana in May. I have never seen it in the Marche. It certainly 

 nests in Liguria, which it constructs on the ground, generally between 

 stones. The eggs, in number from five to six, are of a sky blue 

 green, with rusty spots more or less apparent. 



Mr. Savile Eeid, in his "Gibraltar Notes," remarks: — "May 25th., 

 1873. Explored the rocky ground at the foot of the 'Queen of 

 Spain's Chair' for Wheatears. Saw nine or ten pairs of S. stapazina, 

 which seems verv common, and found one nest containinsf five esfo-s. 

 in the bank of a small quarry-hole. The nest was loosely made, but 

 admirably fitted into the niche; the groundwork was of dry plant 

 stems and fibres, lined with fine roots and a few horse hairs. The 

 eggs, four of which got broken unfortunately later in the day, were 

 of a pale blue, speckled, chiefly at the larger end, with faint brown 

 markings." 



"June 14th., 1873. Another visit to the Queen's Chair for Wheat- 

 ears. A nest of S. stapazina, in which I had previously left one 

 e^^, had been destroyed. I however found another nest of the same 



