200 PASSERES. SAXICOLA. Wueat-Far. 
previous to its equatorial migration, it is extremely fat, and 
of high flavour; is then esteemed as a great delicacy, and 
considered little inferior to the ortolan. It is of course in 
great demand, and vast numbers are annually caught upon 
Method of the Downs. The mode of entrapping them is simple, but 
catching 
this bird. 
Food. 
Flight. 
singular; and is effected by placing two turfs on edge, with 
a small horse-hair noose fixed to a stick at each opening. 
The bird, attempting to enter in search of food, or to escape 
from apprehended danger, is almost certain of being caught 
by one of the nooses *. 
It is generally seen alone, or in pairs, and its migrations 
do not even appear to be performed in associated numbers.— 
It hops with great celerity, and in this manner obtains its 
food on the ground, which consists of worms and insects, as 
also the larvee of the lepidopterous and dipterous orders. 
During the pairing season, its song is sweet in note, and plea- 
singly varied, and is frequently poured forth on the wing, 
whilst hovering over the female, or the site of the nest; and 
at this period also its tail-is displayed in a singular manner, 
by a lateral expansion of the feathers.—Its flight is smooth 
and rapid, but near the surface of the ground ; and it com- 
monly alights upon the top of a small hillock, stone, or wall. 
Indeed this peculiarity attends both the other British species, 
which invariably chuse the very summit of the whin bush or 
plant on which they happen to perch. 
I cannot but remark the circumstance of Mr STErpHENs 
(in his continuation of the ‘“ General Zoology” commenced 
by the late Dr Saw) having placed the present bird at the 
head of a new genus, which he has named Vittaflora, at the 
same time that he has left the whin-chat (Saxicola rubetra), 
and the stone-chat (S. rubicola), both precisely agreeing 
with the Wheat-Ear in generic characters and manners, in 
the genus Sylvia. ‘This is to be regretted, as inattention to 
* PENNANT says, that a3 many as 1840 dozens of these birds have been 
taken in one year about Eastbourne in Sussex. 
