140 WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS. _ [cwap. xvi1. 
ings. She appears quite acquainted with them all, sitting snugly 
in her warmly feathered nest, with nothing visible but her bright 
black eyes and sharp-pointed bill. As soon as her eggs are 
hatched, she and her mate are ina great bustle, bringing food 
to their very tiny offspring—flying backwards and forwards all 
day with caterpillars and grubs. 
Both this and the larger kind of whitethroat which visits us 
have a lively and pleasing song. They frequently make their 
nest on the ground in the orchard, amongst the long grass, 
arching it over in the most cunning manner, and completely 
concealing it. When they leave their eggs to feed, a leaf is laid 
over the entrance of the nest to hide it; in fact, nothing but 
the eyes of children (who in nest-finding would beat Argus him- 
self) could ever discover the abode of the little whitethroat. Before 
they leave this country, these birds collect together, and are seen 
searching the hedges for insects in considerable but scattered 
flocks. They frequently fly in at the open windows in pursuit of 
flies, and chase them round the room quite fearlessly. The gar- 
dener accuses them of destroying quantities of cherries, by 
piercing them with their bills: they certainly do so, but I am 
always inclined to suppose that it is only the diseased fruit that 
they attack in this way, or that which has already been taken 
possession of by small insects. 
The wheatear does not arrive till the first week of April, when 
they appear in considerable numbers on the sand-hills, flying in 
and out of the rabbit-holes and broken banks, in concealed cor- 
ners of which they hatch. Their eggs are peculiarly beautiful, 
being of a pale blue delicately shaded with a darker colour at 
one end. Though of such repute in the south of England, it is 
not ever sought after here. Asa boy, on the Wiltshire downs, 
I used to be an adept at catching them in horsehair nooses, as 
we used to consider them particularly good eating. The shep- 
herds there, as well as on the South downs, make a considerable 
addition to their income by catching wheatears and sending them 
to the London and Brighton markets. 
The swallows and swifts arrive also about the middle of April. 
Tt is a curious thing to observe how a pair of swallows season 
after season build their nest in the same angle of a window, 
or corner cf a wall, coming immediately tc the same spot, after 
