WHEATEAR, O77 
Tue Wueatrar, or Fallowchat, as it is sometimes 
called, is another summer visitor allied to the Stonechat 
and Whinchat, which generally makes its appearance from 
the southward about the middle of March, and is one 
of the earliest among those birds which seek to pass the 
season of reproduction far to the north of their winter- 
quarters. 
In reference to their appearance in spring, Mr. Couch, 
who resides on the coast of Cornwall, remarks that “the 
Wheatear reaches our shores so early in the morning as 
to prove that it must have taken flight from the French 
coast long before daybreak. Few come after nine o’clock 
in the morning, and none after twelve. They sometimes 
perch on our fishing-boats, at two or three leagues from 
land, in an almost exhausted state. They do not cross the 
Channel every day; and as it usually happens that our 
own residents are not the first to arrive, it is common for 
them to abound in a morning; but in the afternoon, and 
for a day or two after, for not one to be seen. My own 
observations do not confirm the remark, that one sex ma- 
terially precedes the other: they rather appear to arrive 
indiscriminately. Through the summer, the Wheatear is 
a common bird along our coasts, on the slopes fronting the 
sea, somewhat above the bare uncovered rocks. On the 
least alarm, they flit over the precipice, and take refuge in 
some place of shelter.” 
These birds, arriving in numbers probably along the 
whole line of our southern coast, soon disperse themselves 
over the downs, warrens, and fallow lands, some of them 
seeking for a time very high northern latitudes, to be here- 
after enumerated. 
The Wheatear feeds principally on worms, and various 
insects, some of which are taken on the wing, the bird re- 
