3° British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. 



grows in the feathers themselves without a further moult.* 



Young birds are spotted above and below, the feathers of the wings and tail 

 being also edged and tipped with buif. 



The name Wheatear is derived from the words ivhitc and the Anglo-Saxon 

 cers (rump); I believe the bird is still called " Whitus''' by the peasantry in some 

 parts of Kngland ; it is also known by the names of ''Stone clatter" and 

 " ClacharaiL " (Little mason.) 



In Kent I have seen this bird but once, and then only on a wild neglected 

 piece of grass-land close to a cultivated watercress stream ; in the side of a bank 

 overhanging this stream was a hollow, probably the end of a mole burrow, which 

 had been cut across to lengthen the bed of the stream ; and, in this hollow was 

 the Wheatear's nest ; unfortunately she had not commenced to lay. In the same 

 place a lady friend obtained eggs of this species the year before. 



In June, 1886, I saw a considerable number of Wheatears : they were flying 

 about the broken cliffs between Yarmouth and Caister, where sand and patches of 

 reedy grass are commingled over irregular slopes and hollows ; an expanse desolate 

 indeed in appearance, but the home of numerous rabbits, whose burrows in every 

 direction form traps for the heedless pedestrian. I looked in many a hole for 

 nests, but my search was not rewarded. I thought of, and put into practice, the 

 advise given in the following extract from Yarrell, 4th edition, to no purpose. 



" When the nest is in a rabbit-burrow it is not unfrequently 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." 



In addition to its favourite rabbit-burrow, the Wheatear utilizes heaps of 

 stones, niches in walls, peat-stacks, or banks ; or even hollows partly sheltered by 

 a large clod or stone, as building sites. The nest is a rather large and flattish 

 structure, loosely formed of very fine dried grass, sometimes rootlets and a little 

 moss, and lined with feathers and hair, or hair alone. The eggs are said to vary 

 from four to eight in number, six being the visual clutch ; they are somewhat 

 elongated, pale greenish blue, and (almost invariably) unspotted, but very rarely 



* In the case of the Indigo Bunting of X. America, the change from brown winter plumage to the briu-ht 

 blue and green of the breeding dress, is chiefly due to a gradual growth of the bright colouring in the feathers 

 comparatively few feathers being shed : I have the skin of a bird which died half through its sprino- change' 

 showing the feathers in their transitional stage. " 



