176 sylviadjE. 



THE WHEATEAE,* 



Saxicola cenanthe, Linn, (sp.) 

 Motacitta „ „ 



Sylvia „ Lath. 



Is a regular summer visitant, commonly distributed over 

 Ireland and the surrounding islets ; 



Such as the Copelands, off Down; Rathlin, off the north of 

 Antrim ;t Tory, off the north-west of Donegal; J and when visit- 

 ing the largest of the islands of Arran, off Galway Bay, on the 

 8th of July, 1834, it was the only land bird of passage that we 

 met with. Nowhere have I observed this beautiful bird in greater 

 numbers than in the extreme north-west, and along the western 

 coast generally : — with regard to Scotland, it is said to be " no- 

 where more plentiful, than in the Outer Hebrides, and in the 

 Orkney and Shetland Islands." § The wheatear is commonly the 

 earliest of the su mm er birds in arrival, making its appearance 

 usually in the last week of March. The earliest known to me 

 about Belfast, were seen on the 19th of March, 1843, and 24th 

 of March, 1847, — in the late spring of 1837, it did not appear 

 until the 15th of April, nor in that of 1840, until the 29th of 

 this month. Mr. Poole notes its arrival in Wexford on the 26th 

 of March, and Mr. Neligan had not seen it in Kerry before the 

 25th of this month. About a dozen of wheatears were observed 



* In the north of Ireland this hird is commonly called stone- checker, from its 

 note, check — check, and its being generally seen about stones. In Kerry, according 

 to the Rev. T. Knox — as communicated in August, 1838 — it is called custeen-fay- 

 clough, meaning " the cunning little old man under the stone." Having called the 

 attention of a good Irish scholar, Mr. Robert S. Mc Adam of Belfast, to the name of 

 this bird, he kindly supplied the following note : — "The name for the stone-checker in 

 the north and west of Ireland, is cloibhrean cloich. A county Tipperary man ques- 

 tioned, never heard that name for it, nor the county Kerry name either, (which you 

 have,) but says it is called in his county, casur clock, which signifies the stone-ham- 

 mer. The custeen-f ay -dough is spelled coistinfaoi cloich, but seems to be a local 

 name for the bird. No one that I have asked had ever heard it." 



t Dr. J. D. Marshall. 



% In August, 1845, Mr. Hyndman saw several here. 



§ Macgillivray, Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 292. 



