SAXICOLA (ENANTHE [Linn). 



(The Wheatear^.) 

 By Mr. G. D. ROWLEY. 



(Plate LXXV.) 



After sitting for more than a quarter of a century on the shores of the 

 sunny south coast, hving among shepherds, one cannot help saying a word 

 on the Wheatear. For if a person looks over the short turf of these downs 

 in the second week in August, he will not fail to see certain lumps of earth, 

 appearing in the distance like animals, in groups of ten or so ; these are 

 the ''Wheatear coops," as the traps are called, in which the birds are 

 caught. 



The name ''Wheatear" appears to me to be of simple origin, not 

 wanting any trained derivationist to unravel, and to have been given by the 

 country-people because of the habit, which I have often observed in this 

 species, of sitting on the shocks of corn— actually on the wheat-ear— like 

 Barley-bird, Clod-bird, &c. 



I say a trained derivationist ; for it requires caution to handle such 



^ In a Catalogue of Britisli birds, by E. Forster, jun., of Clapton, dated 1817, 1 find :— 

 '' Sylvia cenanthe, Whiterump, Wheatear, Clodhopper, Shepherd's bird, Fallowfinch, Fallow- 

 smith, Chicel, or Snorter.'' 



