34 RECREATIONS OF A NATURALIST 



caught by the neck in the snares. Upon the downs 

 of Sussex, which are a ridge of mountains running 

 all along by the sea coast for thirty or forty miles 

 in length, they are taken yearly in great numbers 

 in harvest time or the beginning of autumn, where 

 for their fatness and delicate relish they are highly 

 prized." 



Macky, in his Journey through England, 

 1732 (i. 125), has thus referred to the Sussex 

 Wheatears : — 



" I lay at a pretty village called Eastborn and 

 supp'd upon some little birds call'd Wheatears, 

 resembling our Ortolans. This is the chief place 

 where these birds are taken. I had the pleasure 

 of going out the next morning a-catching of them 

 with a shepherd, and took two dozen for a break- 

 fast. The manner of catching them is very 

 particular ; they cut a turf of about a foot long and 

 half a foot deep, and turn the turf to cover the hole, 

 in which they put a snare of horse hair, and the birds, 

 being very shy, on the approach of any one, running 

 into these holes for shelter, are taken." 



Gilbert White's correspondent, William Mark- 

 wick, who lived at Catsfield, near Battle, about five 

 miles from the sea, contributed a useful " Catalogue 

 of Birds found in the County of Sussex " to the 

 Transactions of the Linnean Society in May 1795. 

 In this Catalogue he notices the Wheatears as being 

 "found in great plenty on our South Downs," and 

 after referring to the traps used by the shepherds for 

 capturing them, described as horse-hair nooses 

 placed under a sod of turf dug out of the ground 



