20 WHEATEAR. 
recorded from 80° N. lat. (Feilden), Boothia Felix, and Point 
Barrow. Greenland appears to be the breeding-place of a large 
race which passes through our islands from the middle of April 
onwards, and seems to be somewhat addicted to perching on trees. 
Our ordinary form breeds throughout Europe, Siberia, Mongolia, 
and, at suitable elevations, in Asia Minor and North Africa ; it visits 
the Canaries, and has of late years established itself in the Azores. 
The smallest examples are those found in Syria. In winter 
it migrates to a little south of the Equator. Crossing. Bering 
Sea it visits Alaska; and accidentally it has occurred in Colorado, 
the eastern portions of the United States and Canada, and the 
Bermudas. 
About the middle of April a loose nest of dry grass, lined with 
rabbits’ fur, hair, and feathers, is placed in rabbit-burrows, crevices of 
stone walls, and peat-stacks on the moors, or under rocks and fallow- 
clods, in discarded tins and kettles, and even in old artillery-shells. 
The 5-6, often 7, eggs are very pale blue, sometimes minutely 
dotted with purple: measurements *8 by *6 in. Two broods are 
produced in the season. The old birds are wary and do not easily 
betray the situation of their treasure. The song of the male, often 
uttered on the wing, is rather pretty; and the bird also displays 
considerable powers of imitating other species. Its food consists of 
small spiders, insects—often captured flying—and their larve. The 
name has no connection with wheat, but is a corruption of white, 
and of the Anglo-Saxon ers, for which the modern equivalent is 
‘rump’; and in fact as “white rumps” this species and _ its 
congeners are known in most of the European language. 
Adult male in summer : forehead and eye-streak white ; lores and 
ear-coverts black ; head, neck and back grey ; wings nearly black ; 
rump white ; the two central tail-feathers black nearly to the base, 
the others white with broad black tips ; under parts white, with only 
a faint tinge of buff on the throat in old birds; under wing-coverts 
and axillaries mottled with dark grey and white; bill, legs and 
feet black. In autumn the new feathers are so broadly margined 
with rufous-brown that the male much resembles the female ; and 
even on the spring arrival many of the upper feathers still retain 
buff margins. Length 6 in. ; wing to tip of third and longest quill, 
3°75 in. The female differs in having the ear-coverts dark brown; 
upper parts hair-brown; under parts buff, not unlike the south- 
eastern S. zsabellina, in which, however, the xxder wing-coverts are 
white. The young are slightly spotted above and below, with buff 
tips and margins to the tail- and wing-feathers. 
