34 BRITISH BIRDS’ EGGS. 
COMMON WHEATEAR. 
SaxIcOLA GNANTHE, Linn. 
Pl. VIIL., fig. 21. 
Geogr. distr.—All over the Western Palearctic Region from Green- 
land to Africa, and eastward through Siberia to North China; also 
occurs in Eastern N. America and Behring’s Straits; common, but 
local, throughout the British Isles, arriving late in February and 
leaving in September. 
Food.—Insects in all stages, worms, and Mollusca. 
Nest.—Made throughout of very fine dried grasses, mixed with 
small fragments of wool or moss, with feathers and hair; rather 
large and flat. 
Position of nest.—In any hole in a wall or bank, in a rabbit- 
burrow, or behind a large clod or stone, sometimes in a heap of stones. 
Number of eggs.—5-8. 
Time of nidification._IV-VI; April or beginning of May. 
Though it is certain that a considerable number of 
Wheatears must breed in this country every year, I have 
hitherto only met with the nest once in Kent; it was placed 
in a hole in the side of a bank enclosing a watercress 
stream, in which place it had bred for several successive 
years; when I saw it no eggs had been deposited. The 
bird is esteemed a delicacy for the table, and numbers are 
destroyed for this purpose. 
‘“When the nest is in a rabbit-burrow it is not unfre- 
quently visible from the exterior, but when under a rock 
it is often placed a long way from the entrance, and out of 
sight. It can nearly always be found with certainty by 
watching the hen-bird, and Salmon says that on the large 
warrens of Suffolk and Norfolk its position is easily detected 
by the considerable number of small pieces of the withered 
stalks of the brake amassed at the entrance of the burrow. 
When the place of concealment, however, is beneath a 
rock or earth-fast stone, the nest is often inaccessible to the 
finder.” (Yarrell, 4th ed.) 
A writer in the ‘ Field’ for April, 1871, suggests that the 
name of this bird may have been derived from its note, 
Wheet-jur, or possibly from the white base to the tail, ear 
being a transposition of the old word are; the former 
suggestion seems to me the least fanciful. 
